FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

October 24, 2008

--Official Charter School Enrollment Grows 18% to Just Under 26,000; Thirty-Five Percent Now in Charters
--FY 2009 Education Budget More Than Sufficient to Fund all DCPS and Charter Students, Including Those at Center City PCS

Official Charter School Enrollment Grows 18% to Just Under 26,000; Thirty-Five Percent Now in Charters

D.C.’s 60 public charter schools reported 25,840 students on October 6, the official enrollment count date. This represents an increase of 3,893 students, or nearly 18%, over last year’s audited charter school enrollment. Audited figures for this year will not be available until early 2009. D.C.’s charter schools now enroll 35% of all District of Columbia public school students

In spite of repeated requests, FOCUS has not been able to get the DCPS October 6 enrollment figures from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, which is responsible for auditing the enrollment numbers. A source inside DCPS, however, told FOCUS that total DCPS enrollment is 48,930, down more than 10% from last year’s audited figure of 54,648. Only 46,205 DCPS students attend school in the District; the remaining 2,725 are in private placements or attend public schools in surrounding counties.

Although overall charter school enrollment grew, eight of the 60 charter schools missed their enrollment projections by between 30 and 60 percent. Some of this deficiency may be the result of competition from Center City Public Charter School, a seven-campus Catholic school that converted to charter status this year. Center City reported 1,451 students, only about 600 of whom had been enrolled in the Catholic schools.

FY 2009 Education Budget More Than Sufficient to Fund all DCPS and Charter Students, Including Those at Center City PCS

Last spring, as the D.C. Public Charter School Board (PCSB) considered whether to permit seven Catholic schools to open up this fall as Center City Public Charter School (see article, above), the Fenty administration and some D.C. Council members warned that there would be no funds in city coffers for the 600 or so D.C. resident students who would move from the Catholic schools to the new charter school in the fall. Although the pending conversion was well known, the Council and mayor failed to include funding for these students in the FY 2009 budget, which was finalized before the PCSB formally approved the conversion in the middle of June. These officials wanted the PCSB to require the converting schools to delay their opening until the fall of 2010, and accused the PCSB of indifference to the financial health of the District. The Council’s response to this perceived crisis was to introduce legislation to reduce the independence of the PCSB and to require all of its members to be D.C. residents (two of the seven members at the time lived out of state).

Throughout, FOCUS insisted that the combined charter school and DCPS enrollment estimate — 72,390 — used by the administration to develop the FY 2009 education budget was high, just as it had been in nearly every previous budget, and therefore there would be money to fund Center City. And so it has proven to be. The government underestimated charter school enrollment by 1,194 students, but overestimated DCPS enrollment by 1,539. Audited enrollment numbers are certain to be lower than those reported, increasing the cushion even more.

The government missed a $4.25 million dollar payment that was owed to Center City on July 15, ostensibly because it needed more time to scrounge around for the money. Center City was able to borrow what it needed to get its doors open and fill its classrooms with teachers, and is expecting to finally be funded on October 25th, the second payday for the other 59 charter schools.

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