FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

June 8, 2004

--DCPCSB Receives 16 Applications for 05-06 Charter Schools
--Mayor's Latest Takeover Bid Still Not Charter Friendly

Applications to Start DCPCSB Charter Schools Highest Since 1999

Sixteen charter school hopefuls submitted applications to the D.C. Public Charter School Board on June 1. Among the potential schools are two preschools focused on early literacy, two elementary schools in which the arts are integrated into the curriculum, a bilingual immersion middle school, a health sciences-focused middle school, a girls school, two high schools integrating academics with other skills -- career education and construction-trades education, respectively -- and one high school that addresses the needs of students with emotional disabilities. Successful applicants will open their schools in the fall of 2005.

The large number of applications continues an upswing begun last year, when eleven applications were submitted to the DCPCSB. In the two previous years a total of only 10 applications were submitted to the Board. Since it opened for business in 1997, the DCPCSB has received a total of 106 charter applications and has approved 30, or 28%. One DCPCSB school closed down last year.

The other chartering authority, the Board of Education, will receive applications for the 2005-2006 school year on June 25. Since 1996 the Board has received 65 applications and has approved 25, or 38%. Six BOE charter schools have been closed.


FOCUS, which this year launched a major program to recruit, train, and support charter school applicants, has worked with 10 of
the 16 applicants.

Latest Version of Takeover Plan Threatens Charter School Independence, Would Create Chartering Monopoly

As we previously reported (Bulletin 5/21/04), the mayor's plan to take over the DCPS schools, eliminate the Board of Education Chartering Authority, and create a new State Board of Education with the authority to set standards for all D.C. schools has raised serious concerns that the plan would inhibit charter school independence and the growth of the charter school movement in
the District. As we also reported, a number of charter school leaders met with mayoral staff to express these concerns and to ask for changes in the plan.

Regrettably, the latest version of the plan, dated June 1, leaves most of the offending provisions intact. As in the earlier draft, the State Board is given the authority to impose academic standards, student achievement goals and guidelines, and rewards and sanctions for school performance on the public charter schools, and to investigate charter schools to ensure compliance with the state mandates. The June 1 draft, as did the earlier version, also fails to create an additional chartering authority to replace the Board of Education chartering authority, which would be eliminated under the law.

The School Reform Act, D.C.'s charter school law, gives the District's charter schools independence from both DCPS and the D.C. government. The Act sets up a completely separate accountability scheme for the charter schools, as part of which the chartering boards monitor and evaluate the same matters that the State Board would have the authority to oversee if the mayor's plan were approved by the Council. Giving the State Board such power over the charter schools would therefore be a clear violation of the Act and would undermine the independence from government control that makes charter school success possible.


As to the failure to create an additional chartering board, those states that have more than one chartering authority have more charter schools and more vibrant charter school movements. Creating a charter school monopoly in the District, where thousands of students sit on charter school waiting lists, would be a step backward.

FOCUS has submitted comments on the bill to the mayor's staff and is awaiting a response.


Friends of Choice in Urban Schools
1530 16th Street, NW #001
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 387-0405 phone
(202) 667-3798 fax
www.focus-dccharter.org