FOCUS DC Public Charter School Bulletin

February 28, 2007

--Official Charter School Enrollment Up 13%; DCPS Suffers Another Significant Loss
--Some Council Members Want to Rein in Charters; Chair “Not Inclined” to Support Moratorium
--Parent Founders of Charter Schools to Get Admissions Preference

Official Charter School Enrollment Up 13%; 27% Now In Charters

According to the official audit recently released by the State Education Office, D.C.’s 55 charter public schools this year enroll 19,662 D.C. resident students, an increase from last year of 2,243, or 13%. The school system, meanwhile, lost 2,557 students, or 4.8%. DCPS enrolls a total of 54,648 resident students, of whom 52,191 attend DCPS schools and 2,457 are transported to non-public schools or to public schools outside of D.C. Charter schools now enroll 27% of the students attending District public schools.

This is the tenth consecutive year of growth for these schools, many of which have extensive waiting lists:

06-07 19,662
05-06 17,419
04-05 15,500
03-04 13,743
02-03 11,452
01-02 10,679
00-01 9,656
99-00 6,980
98-99 3,594
97-98 300
96-97 160 (approximate)

Under the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula, DCPS and the charter schools receive funding only for D.C.-resident enrolled students. According to the audit report, DCPS was unable to verify the residency of 3.5% of the students it reported as enrolled; the corresponding figure for the charter schools was 1.7%. DCPS also was unable to verify the residency of more than 9% of the students in non-public schools and public schools outside of D.C.

Some Council Members Want to Rein in Charters; Chair “Not Inclined” to Support Moratorium

Two of the eleven currently-seated council members -- Tommy Wells (Ward 6) and Jim Graham (Ward 1) -- expressed concern about charter school growth at a recent public hearing on mayor Fenty’s education reform plan. Wells asked a charter school witness whether it wasn’t time to put a limit on the number of charter schools, given their proliferation and, as he put it, that “not all of them are doing that well.” Graham expressed concern about competition to under-enrolled DCPS schools from charter schools located in his ward, and wondered whether the Council shouldn’t “be as concerned about centralizing the administration of charter schools as we are about DCPS.” In other words, Graham said, “shouldn’t charters be brought under the mayor?”

Meanwhile, Council Chair Vincent Gray, who in his recent campaign called repeatedly for a moratorium on chartering, now seems to be uncertain. In response to a witness who called for a 180-day moratorium, Gray expressed doubt: “I’m not sure I’m inclined to support a moratorium on charter schools. They’re competition for DCPS; perhaps if the school system performed better there wouldn’t be such a proliferation.”

None of those opining on the subject of a moratorium seemed to be aware that only Congress, which authored the D.C. School Reform Act, could impose one. The Act currently permits the chartering authorities to charter up to 20 new schools per year, and sets no overall cap on the number of charters. Congress also would have to legislate in order for there to be mayoral control over or other new restrictions on D.C.’s charter schools.

Parent Founders of Charter Schools to Get Admissions Preference

Thanks to the dogged persistence of council member Phil Mendelson (At Large), parents who found charter schools in the future will have a better chance of getting their own children into the charters they worked so hard to open. Mendelson attached a charter school founders’ admission preference to the Public Charter School Assets and Facilities Preservation Amendment Act of 2006,” which provides for the orderly disposition of the assets of closed charter schools. Under the Mendelson provision, an admissions preference will be provided for the children of members of a new charter’s founding board, up to a maximum of 10% of the school’s enrollment or 20 students, whichever is less.

It is hoped that this legislation will encourage parents to start charter schools; so far only two of D.C.’s 55 charters have been parent-founded.

Friends of Choice in Urban Schools
1530 16th Street, NW #104
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 387-0405 phone
(202) 667-3798 fax
www.focusdc.org