DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS BILL 2001
House Report No. 106-786
July 25, 2000

Addressing concerns about increasing regulation of the charter schools by the chartering boards

Charter schools are an innovation in public education designed to provide educational opportunities free from traditional public school bureaucracy. The District of Columbia has one of the most vibrant charter school programs in the United States, after only three years enrolling more than 10% of the District's public school children.

However, the vibrancy of the District's public charter school movement is at risk from increasingly bureaucratic oversight by the chartering boards, which appear to be losing sight of what makes public charter schools different from traditional public schools. Over the last two years, the chartering boards have greatly increased the number and frequency of school system-style monitoring visits and reporting requirements, and even have begun to intrude on areas given over to the exclusive control of the charter schools by the School Reform Act (such as personnel and instructional methods). Charter school leaders, like their traditional public school counterparts, are finding that much of their time is being taken up by these procedural and other demands. Many school leaders report that because of the burden of oversight they have little time to spend on their schools' academic programs – the same complaint that is made by so many principals of traditional public schools

The Congress is mindful of the need for the charter schools to be accountable to the public for academic achievement and the use of public money. However, such accountability must not be used to justify imposing on the charter schools the “expect and inspect” variety of procedural accountability that has proven to be such a failure in traditional public school systems. Charter schools are to be held accountable for results – increased student achievement -- only. How the charter schools achieve those results is left to the creative judgment of those who found and run the schools.

The School Reform Act sets up a scheme by which charter schools are to be held accountable. In addition to a rigorous application process that has resulted in most charter school petitions being denied, the Act requires the submission of a detailed annual report by each school, including an audited financial statement. The Act also mandates that all charter school students take the same standardized tests as other public school children in the District. The Act also requires each school to obtain and maintain accreditation, and to undergo a review every five years to determine whether there is a reason to revoke its charter.

The chartering boards must resist the urge to add significantly to these already substantial requirements. Accountability is important, but must be limited to fiscal responsibility and student outcomes. The freedom of the public charter schools from process accountability and other forms of bureaucratic interference must be preserved if these schools are to do a better job of schooling children than is being done by school systems. The chartering boards must at all costs avoid infringing on those matters left within the exclusive control of the charter schools by the School Reform Act; and they must not require the schools to sign away this control as a condition of approval.

Finally, the chartering boards should not extend the charter petition approval process beyond the dates permitted by the School Reform Act. The intent of Congress in establishing the School Reform Act was that by April 1 of each year charter applicants would know whether they would receive a charter to open school the following September. Charter applicants should not have to wait until June or July for approval, as has frequently been the case, nor should schools have to delay their opening for an entire year after approval to allow the chartering boards even more time to ensure that they are “ready” to open. Finally, “final approval” to begin operation as a charter school should not have to await the signing of a so-called charter school contract, which has been used by both boards to impose on the schools greater requirements than contemplated by the School Reform Act.