FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

June 23, 2008

--D.C.’s Congressional Delegate Introduces Bill to Enable Council to Legislate Composition of Charter Authorizer; Accompanying Statement Calls D.C. Charter School Movement “a model for the country.”
--Charter School Facilities Hopes Dim: Pool of Available Closed School Buildings Sinks Again with Announcement That Five More Will House Government Agencies
--D.C. Public Charter School Board Resists Political Pressure, Charters Catholic Conversion School

D.C.’s Congressional Delegate Introduces Bill to Enable the D.C. Council to Legislate Composition of Charter Authorizer; Accompanying Statement Calls D.C. Charter School Movement “a model for the country.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives, on Friday introduced a bill that would amend D.C.’s congressionally-passed charter school law to permit the District of Columbia to legislate rules for membership on the D.C. Public Charter School Board (PCSB), D.C.’s sole charter authorizer. The bill, called the “Public Charter Schools Home Rule Act of 2008” (Norton Bill), also would eliminate some congressional reporting requirements currently placed upon the PCSB by the charter school law.

That law, known as the School Reform Act of 1995 (SRA), places control of the PCSB’s membership largely in the hands of the U.S. Secretary of Education, from whose recommendations the mayor must fill PCSB vacancies. Two weeks ago, the chairman of the D.C. Council, Vincent Gray, and Ward 6 councilmember Tommy Wells, upset with the PCSB over its intention to authorize the conversion to charter status of seven former Catholic schools, introduced a bill in the Council that would take away the Secretary’s nominating power and require District residency of all members. But, as evidenced by the quick introduction in Congress of the Norton Bill, under current law the Council has no authority to overrule Congress by amending the SRA.

In a statement accompanying the bill, Delegate Norton insisted that she was motivated purely by “home rule” considerations and not by any concerns about the PCSB or the charter schools. In fact, she heaped praise on both: “My bill is not intended as a criticism of the [PCSB] or its work. D.C. residents have created huge demand. The exponential growth of charter schools and their long waiting lists are a solid indication of [their] success in meeting the needs of thousands of students. The city would almost surely have lost many more residents than it has without the large growth of charter schools.” Norton went on to praise “the level of innovation, diversity of opportunities and excellence of many of the charter schools,” making them “a model for the country.”

Norton’s effusive praise of the charter schools puts her well out in front of the Council, some of whose members attack the charters at every opportunity, and the mayor, who has been largely silent about the key role the charters play in D.C. school reform.

The Council had intended to hold a public hearing on its bill in the fall. It is not known how the introduction of the Norton Bill will affect these plans.

Charter School Facilities Hopes Dim: Pool of Available Closed School Buildings Shrinks Again with Announcement That Five More Will House Government Agencies

Nine D.C. government agencies will share space in five buildings recently closed by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, according to a statement released last Friday by Mayor Adrian Fenty and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso. The buildings are Backus MS, Merritt Educational Center, Meyer ES, P.R. Harris Education Center, and Young ES.

The five buildings will house the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Employment Services, Child and Family Services Agency, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, Department of Public Works Parking Enforcement Division, Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, Department of Corrections, Metropolitan Police Department, and Department of Parks and Recreation.

A sixth closed school building, Bowen ES, was set aside last month for use by the Metropolitan Police Department. Five other buildings of the 23 on the closure list have been reserved for use by DCPS as “swing space” (Bunker Hill ES, Garnet-Paterson MS, Green ES, Park View ES, and Wilkinson ES),” and another is “planned for alternative DCPS use” (Gibbs ES). Two additional buildings, Hine JHS and Stevens ES, have been set aside by the Fenty administration for commercial development.

The charter schools are guaranteed a “right of first offer” on all surplus school buildings by the D.C. School Reform Act of 1995, but were permitted to bid on none of the above buildings. So far, only three of the 23 closed school buildings have been designated for charter school use: KIPP PCS will take over Douglass ES; Building Hope will develop Benning ES as a charter school incubator; and one lucky charter school, not yet named, will get to share space in Slowe ES with Mary McCloud Bethune PCS, which already occupies part of the building.

On June 13, the charter schools were invited to bid on four of the remaining closed schools: Clark ES, J.F. Cook ES, Rudolph ES, and the Taft Center. It is not known, however, how committed the administration is to getting charters into even these buildings; according to Saturday’s Washington Post, the deputy mayor said on Friday only that “[o]ther buildings may be made available to charters” (emphasis added).

The government has said nothing about possible uses for two additional closed schools, Gage-Eckington ES and MM Washington HS, and has not made them available for bid.

Responding to a statement to the Post by FOCUS’s executive director expressing disappointment that the Fenty administration, like the Williams administration before it, was ignoring the law and the needs of charter school children, the deputy mayor opined that “It’s too early for them to say they haven’t gotten a fair bite of the apple.” But with so much of the apple already having disappeared down the government’s gullet, it is certain that most of the 20+ charter schools seeking buildings will go hungry once again.

D.C. Public Charter School Board Resists Political Pressure, Charters Catholic Conversion School

Last Monday the PCSB unanimously approved the petition of the Center City PCS to open seven former Catholic schools as a seven campus charter school in the fall. The Board had been under intense pressure from the Council and the administration to deny the petition, or at least to postpone the school’s opening for a year. Board members, however, lauded the academic record of the schools and the quality of the petition and tried to shift the focus from the government’s budget concerns to the needs of the approximately 600 former Catholic school students, who will now be able to stay in their schools instead of being dispersed to dozens of charter and DCPS schools.

Also at the meeting, the Board approved one of the nine petitions it had received in March to open new charter schools in the fall of 2009. The other eight were denied.

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