B2 eZ Re the washington post.thursday, february 20 , 2020
tion programs, and young music
fans have turned instead to
genres such as rap and hip-hop.
Go-go’s renaissance began last
year, when a Shaw electronics
store that doubles as a go-go hot
spot suddenly went silent.
A resident of a nearby luxury
apartment complex had com-
plained about the metro PCS ven-
dor’s m usic — first to city officials,
then to the store’s parent compa-
ny — w hich prompted T-mobile to
ask the store’s owner to mute the
music.
many Washingtonians were in-
censed. Politicians and communi-ty activists held rallies with live
music and slogans of support. The
#DontmuteDC hashtag, coined by
a Howard student, took off.
The store’s music returned
days later, with the support of
T-mobile’s c hief executive. But go-
go had already become synony-
mous with a homegrown resis-
tance to forces of gentrification in
the District.
“The world w as watching when
#DontmuteDC was born, and
they’re watching now to see how
we’re going to deal with gentrifi-
cation in our city, h ow we’re going
to preserve the culture and pro-tect the people of our city,” said
activist ron moten, one of the
lead organizers of the
#Dontmute DC movement. “D.C.
has an opportunity to show the
world how it’s done.”
Born in the live-music dance
halls of the 1970 s, go-go earned its
name when Brown said he was
trying to keep people grooving
with a beat that just “goes and
goes.”
The music became the sound-
track of D.C. neighborhoods,
schools and block parties.
D.C. Council member Kenyan
r. mcDuffie (D-Ward 5), whowrote the bill, has said he hopes
the city can use go-go’s history
and cultural significance to at-
tract tourists, create jobs and fos-
ter art and creativity.
“You can’t go to New orleans
without hearing jazz,” mcDuffie
said last year. “If you come to the
nation’s capital, you’re going to
hear go-go music.”
on Wednesday, it leaked out
the doors and windows of the old
church, as residents young and
old shuffled and bopped, dancing
down the steps, out the doors and
into the chilly february air.
[email protected]with fewer than 300 students are
assigned a part-time librarian.
In the charter sector, which
educates nearly 50 percent of the
city’s public school children,
about half of campuses have li-
braries. Some are led by librarians
and others by teachers who spe-
cialize in reading.
The traditional public school
system’s chancellor, Lewis D. fer-
ebee, whose mother was a school
librarian, said the funding for
librarians does not represent a
change from last year.
But he said school budgets look
different. In an effort to be more
transparent, he said he explicitly
noted on budget documents that
principals can request to use the
money intended for librarians for
another position.
ferebee said initial budgets —
which can be changed in the
coming months as principals
make requests — designate about
$12 million to pay for school li-
brarians. Nearly $1 million is slat-
ed to update school library collec-
tions.
Even if a school does not have a
librarians from b1 librarian, the school system re-
quires every campus to have fully
stocked libraries.
D.C. Public Schools “empowers
schools to develop a budget that
best meets the needs of their
school community, which in-
cludes reviewing the flexibility
provided within their allocation,”
ferebee wrote in a statement. “We
recognize that guidance provided
to schools in the past around
these flexibilities was unclear and
contradictory.”
fear over the fate of the city’s
school librarians — who are also
known as media specialists —
emerged this month during the
initial review of school budgets
for the next academic year.
While the overall education
budget includes a 4 percent in-
crease per student over the cur-
rent year, teachers and education
advocates say that rising person-
nel costs leave some schools cash-
strapped, even with the increase
in student expenditures.
And it’s not only rising person-
nel costs: Smaller schools are
more expensive to operate and,
with the opening of new cam -
puses in the traditional public
and charter sectors, the city has
an increasing number of cam -
puses with many vacant seats.
Nero’s position at ron Brown
Prep is expected to go from full
time to part time because the
school’s enrollment is projected
to drop below 300 students. He
said he builds important relation-ships with students, finding
books for struggling readers he
knows will interest them.
The debate over the funding of
school librarians is nothing new,
said Patrick Sweeney, national
political director of EveryLibrary,
an advocacy organization work-
ing with D.C. librarians.School libraries experienced
steep cuts — most acutely in
schools that serve large popula-
tions of children from low-
income families — following the
2008 recession, and Sweeney said
advocates failed to properly con-
vey the importance of these posi-
tions to the public. The number of
school librarians is still declining
nationally, according to Sweeney.
“The concern is always the
elimination of librarians,”
Sweeney said. “It’s not just about
books. As librarians, we are spe-
cifically trained in navigating in-
formation structures and sys-
tems, and how to make sure they
work, how to identify fake news,
how to protect your identity.”
Librarian Lindsay Hall at Dun-
bar High School in Northwest
Washington said principals
should not be put in the position
of having to choose between a
librarian and saving a teaching
position.
“These are difficult decisions to
make, and they are asked to make
sacrifices that are unfair,” Hall
said. “While principals should
have discretion, are they able to
see the value before they makethat decision?”
The decline of school librarians
across the country has K.C. Boyd,
librarian at Jefferson middle
School Academy in Southwest
Washington, worried — even
though the District employs far
more librarians in schools than
other jurisdictions.
During a Chicago teachers
strike in 2019, the union called on
city leaders to employ librarians
at every school. While the new
teacher contract allocated more
money to schools, American Li-
braries magazine reported it is
unclear how many more librari-
ans that will yield.
Last month in Philadelphia,
librarians rallied for more school
librarians because so few schools
employ them.
If a school system makes hiring
a librarian optional, it’s only a
matter of time before the jobs
vanish districtwide, advocates
say.
“This seems to open the door,”
Boyd said, “for more petitions and
waivers to cut school librarians.”
[email protected]D.C. school budget review leads to fear over funding of librarians
“We know the track
record. When things get
tight, they end up
cutting librarians first.”
Kenneth nero Jr., librarian at Ron
Brown College Preparatory high
school in northeast washingtonBY ERIN COX
AND STEVE THOMPSONA government watchdog group
filed an ethics complaint against
maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on
Wednesday, alleging that he vio-
lated conflict-of-interest laws by
participating in state highway
construction decisions that bene-
fited his real estate business.
The complaint, filed by Public
Citizen, also asks the maryland
State Ethics Commission to re-
visit its advice to Hogan (r) that
he could retain ownership in his
real estate business provided it
was managed by a trust.
The central issue in the com-
plaint is whether the governor
should have recused himself or
disclosed potential conflicts of
interest i n relation to t ransporta-
tion projects near property
owned and developed by his real
estate firm, which is run by his
brother Timothy Hogan and un-
der the control of a trust man-
aged by several current and for-
mer executives of the firm.
The complaint alleges the real
estate firm profited when the
Hogan administration advanced
an interchange project in south-
ern Prince George’s County in- It says the governor’s ad-
ministration fast-tracked the
Brandywine Crossing project be-
fore the state’s ethics commis-
sion granted him an exception
from state conflict-of-interest
laws, which say officials may not
have a financial interest in “an
entity subject to the authority of
that official... or of the govern-
mental unit with which the offi-
cial... is affiliated.”
Larry Hogan acknowledged to
the ethics commission that his
business would necessarily have
contact with agencies he is
charged with overseeing, such as
the State Highway Administration.
He secured the exception from
this prohibition based on both
his pledge to avoid certain pit-
falls — such as conferring with
his firm’s executives about busi-
ness decisions or u sing his p ublic
office to advantage the business
— and the creation of the trust.
The ethics complaint is based
largely on reporting in a January
article in Washington monthly. It
alleges that Hogan, who took
office in early 2015, benefited
from highway decisions by his
administration — including for
projects near Brandywine Cross-
ing — before he created the trust
and received the exception late
that year.
A spokesman for the governor
did not respond to a request for
comment Wednesday afternoon.
Hogan has said in the past that
he has followed the guidance he
sought from the ethics commis-
sion.
one state lawmaker has filed a
bill that would force Hogan to
disclose more information to
General Assembly leaders. It also
would require future governors
to divest from their private busi-
nesses or place those businesses
in a blind trust that is not
managed by family members.
Craig Holman, who works on
ethics issues for Public Citizen,
said he filed the complaint in
part because President Trump’s
conduct in office appeared to be
normalizing unethical behavior
by politicians who retain private
business interests after entering
public service.
“Trump s eems to b e setting the
tone for a number of governors
around the country — that they
are above the law and then can
enrich themselves off of govern-
ment,” Holman s aid. “Hogan isn’t
the only one who is doing this.”
[email protected]
[email protected]MarylandComplaint
filed against
Hogan over
his firm
“Trump seems to be
setting the tone for a
number of governors
... that they are above
the law.”
Craig Holman, with Public CitizenaboVE: Janet Purnell waits in
line Wednesday at a community
celebration in southwest
Washington for the signing of a
bill on go-go music. “i've been
here for 30 years and loved the
music when i first heard it,”
Purnell said. “i love Chuck
brown.” lEFT: D.C. Mayor
Muriel E. bowser (D), behind
the woman holding the
cellphone, joins the crowd for
photos as they mark the city’s
official recognition of go-go.
District officials are pledging to
promote and preserve the
history and cultural
significance the music has in
the nation’s capital.beyond symbolic recognition. It
requires the mayor’s office to pro-
duce, fund and implement pro-
grams that support the preserva-
tion and creation of go-go music
— and the culture and history it
represents.
“It will be so important to see
some real investment from the
city to make sure that go-go can
flourish for generations,” said
Natalie Hopkinson, a Howard
University professor and author
of the book “Go-Go Live: The
musical Life and Death of a Choc-
olate City.”
“There’s so much that can be
done: supporting some of the vul-
nerable archives that haven’t had
a place, setting up a fund for
touring, supporting musicians,
giving them access to grants, even
creating an endowment for go-go
music.”
Bowser on Wednesday de-
clined to specify how much mon-
ey the District was prepared to
put into its nascent go-go initia-
tive, which will be run primarily
by the office of Nightlife and
Culture and the D.C. office of
Cable Te levision, film, music and
Entertainment.
The conversation, she said, was
ongoing.
“We need the agencies to work
with the council on a plan,” Bows-
er said, adding that the District’s
Arts Commission, on which Hop-
kinson serves, is responsible for
“granting a lot of dollars” to arts
programming in the District, and
will probably be the source of
money for go-go efforts.
A generation ago, this official
embrace of the music — a rhyth-
mic mix of percussion and beats
from funk, salsa, soul, gospel,
blues and Latin music — would
have been unfathomable.
for decades, go-go clubs have
struggled to keep their doors
open. Lawmakers in the late
1980 s instituted strict curfews on
young D.C. residents who attend-
ed go-go concerts, which politi-
cians openly blamed for contrib-
uting to social ills including drug
use and violence.
Clubs denied entry to go-go
bands, worried about attracting
unwanted attention from D.C. po-
lice or liquor licensing agents.
Shrinking budgets forced
schools where some of D.C.’s most
beloved go-go bands were formed
to shut down their music educa-
go-go from b1
D.C. takes steps to ensure that go-go flourishes
Photos BY Jahi Chikwendiu/the washington Post“D.C. has an
opportunity to show the
world how it’s done.”
ron Moten,
d.C. activist and one of the lead
organizers of the #dontMutedC
movement, which restored the music
that had gone silent at an electronics
store in one of the city’s gentrifying
neighborhoodsSo handy. So reliable. Home delivery. 1-800-753-POST washingtonpost.com/subscribe
SFSubscriber ExclusivesAccess subscriber benefits at washingtonpost.com/my-post.Rock On: Free Tickets to of Montreal on
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