Ward 4 Spotlight: Max Skolnik

"The current Council has a corporate-driven agenda," Skolnik told me over a cup of tea at The Highlands cafe. "Decisions are made behind closed doors" in a top-down process. To a large extent, Skolnik argues, this is a result of corporate money in the election process. Skolnik favors community-driven solutions in which regular citizens have more input into the decisions that affect their lives.

Skolnik is the founder of Kid Power, Inc., "a civics-based organization that provides academic, artistic, nutritional, and service-learning opportunities for youth in underserved neighborhoods" of the District. He and his wife Erica, along with their 1-year-old son Julian, live in Ward 4's Petworth neighborhood. Given their demographic as young urban parents, it is no surprise that Max and Erica are DCUM users. While Skolnik concedes that his involvement with DCUM has been limited, he describes Erica as "an addict."

Given Skolnik's involvement in education, it is no surprise that education is the starting point of our conversation. "Education is at the root of a lot of issues," he tells me. Education is part of economic development and part of lowering crime. Skolnik's vision for Ward 4 schools is to implement ideas from the DC Community Schools Incentive Act which provides for public-private partnerships to create after-hours programs addressing developmental, health, and social needs of the community. "Right now," Skolnik explains, "schools are intimidating." He wants them to become 24-hour operations that address a range of community needs.

Skolnik faults incumbent Muriel Bowser for not doing enough for education in Ward 4 and iterates through a long list of deficiencies plaguing Ward 4 schools. He points out that only Ward 4 schools saw a reversal in every area of standardized testing. While high schools in other parts of the city have been renovated, Roosevelt and Coolidge remain untouched with promised modernization possibly being further delayed. The middle school situation is particularly dismal, with McFarland Middle School facing a 50% truancy rate. "How can you educate kids if they are not even there?" he asks.

Further addressing the school situation, Skolnik takes a somewhat skeptical attitude toward charter schools. He states a strong preference for neighborhood schools which can help bring communities together. He feels too much energy is required to get into schools and that "education shouldn't depend on winning a lottery." However, he does believe that charter schools have a role to play, especially with specialized programs such as language immersion. He suggests that neighborhood students be given some sort of limited preference in order to strengthen neighborhood ties.

Turning to economic development, Skolnik again takes the opportunity to tie Bowser to corporate interests. "Her solution to developing Walter Reed was to go to Las Vegas" he said. He criticizes her for pursuing "big box" retailers. His preference is to promote local entrepreneurs and turn Walter Reed into a town center featuring local enterprises. Skolnik feels that not enough was done by the Council to obtain a strong Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) from Walmart and cites ties between Walmart lobbyist David Wilmot and Bowser. Wilmot organized a fundraiser for Bowser and according to DCist, has bundled over $24,000 in contributions to the Council Member. Skolnik says that 40% of Bowser's contributions come from corporations. Not surprisingly, therefore, "she is focused on corporate solutions for development projects."

On the topic of campaign finance, Skolnik strongly supports the initiative proposed by the DC Committee to Restore Public Trust that would ban direct corporate contributions to candidates. He says the ability of incumbents to attract bundled corporate contributions that greatly exceed the amounts individuals can contribute makes it nearly impossible for regular people to run competitive campaigns. He says the entry level funding needed for campaigns now is nearly $300,000 which is not practical for a challenger to raise.

Turning to the business environment in Ward 4, Skolnik takes a broad view that encompasses several aspects. He cites concern over the two Walmarts coming to Ward 4 and says that Walmart is a "job destroyer" which decimates local businesses. He describes hurdles to small businesses erected by the DC Government and says the government should have the goal of seeing that small businesses succeed rather than creating obstacles for them. He suggests that financial and technical support be provided to small businesses to help them succeed.

While Skolnik acknowledges that he faces a formidable opponent in Bowser, he points out that Ward 4 has a history of "giant killing". Former Ward 4 Council Member Adrian Fenty defeated a popular and well-funded incumbent to win the Council seat. Later, Fenty -- himself a well-funded and popular mayoral incumbent -- went down in defeat. While he faces no illusions that his task ahead is easy, Skolnik promises a serious and issue-filled campaign.

Max Skolnik's campaign website is: http://www.voteformax.com/