In 2003, Ms. Feinstein courageously bucked her party and cast the deciding vote in committee that created this incredibly successful program for low-income children in D.C. More than 11,000 students have benefited since the program began in the 2004-2005 school year. OSP 12th-graders have consistently had graduation rates in the low- to mid-90s and a 90 percent college-enrollment rate. Parental satisfaction with their child’s current OSP school is at 98 percent.
The OSP was championed by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), Ms. Feinstein and President George W. Bush. Ms. Feinstein consistently supported OSP funding and reauthorization. She worked to ensure the OSP would continue to support current students and grow and help even more students.
The parents and students of the D.C. OSP are grateful to Ms. Feinstein for being a trailblazer on their behalf.
John Schilling, Alexandria
The Post’s coverage of the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has been exemplary. However, one aspect of her mayoralty was overlooked: her superb fiscal management.
I got to work with Ms. Feinstein through my work with a nonprofit municipal research association. Ms. Feinstein became mayor of San Francisco just as the enormous statewide property tax cut mandated by Proposition 13 took effect. The city’s property tax receipts were immediately reduced by at least a third. Yet she managed to balance the city budget and to set aside funds for needed capital improvements. For the nine years she was mayor, San Francisco was a model of wise municipal fiscal management. Under her leadership, the city reformed its financial reporting and budgetary processes so that these became useful management tools instead of paper exercises.
One relatively obscure capital improvement action had significant, lifesaving results. The Public Works Department told the mayor that the decorative parapet encircling Candlestick Park was in danger of collapse. She ordered the parapet properly repaired and reinforced at a cost of several million dollars. Less than two years after she left, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit, occurring just as a World Series game between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s was about to begin in a sold-out stadium. The parapet held, thereby sparing an untold number of lives among the hundreds of fans sitting immediately below it.
San Francisco has a structurally weak mayor, but through her energy, drive and mastery of details, Ms. Feinstein was a strong mayor, and the city prospered under her leadership.
Michael S. McGill, Alexandria
