Spring 1999 Legislative Recommendations

Subchapter II of the District of Columbia School Reform Act (“Act”), which authorized the creation of charter schools in the District, “sunsets” on April 26, 2001. As of the beginning of 1999, 19 schools had been chartered under the Act; as many as 27 will be operating in the 1999-2000 school year. Charters are granted for 15 years: those of most currently chartered schools will not expire until 2013, 12 years after the Act sunsets. Unlimited renewals of 15 years each are available to successful charter schools.

Public charter schools in the District owe their existence to Subchapter II, which sets out detailed rules that guide the District's two chartering authorities. What's more, over half of the public charter schools have been chartered and are monitored by the DC Public Charter School Board, a creature of the Act.

Clearly, chaos would ensue were the law to sunset in 2001 and the DC Public Charter School Board to go out of existence. Banks already are reluctant to make loans to public charter schools knowing that the law could sunset. In addition, parents will soon become concerned about the uncertainty, and those trying to decide whether to continue living in the District or move elsewhere so that their children can attend non-District schools will be more likely to choose the latter course. ^[1]

The Act gives approved public charter schools a preference in leasing or purchasing unused public school facilities [31-2853.19 (b)]. The preference recognizes that charter schools are public schools and, as such, should have easy access to buildings that already have been paid for with taxpayer dollars

for use as public schools. The preference is essential because, as Congress understood, acquiring suitable facilities is one of the most formidable barriers to the establishment of public charter schools.

Regrettably, the clear Congressional intent that charter schools be given preferential access to these buildings has not been implemented. Instead, failing to reflect the needs of charter schools, the policy developed by the Emergency Educational Board of Trustees has forced charter schools to compete against commercial entities seeking to acquire such properties and otherwise created hardship for charter school organizers seeking to lease or purchase public school property. In addition, DCPS procedures set up to execute the policy were so complex and changed so frequently that many charter schools gave up trying to lease vacant school buildings. Those that persevered were delayed so long that they experienced tremendous hardship in trying to get their schools open on time.

As a result, few public charter schools have found permanent homes and many have incurred substantial unnecessary costs. In spite of the existence of more than 50 vacant public school buildings in the city, most of them quickly becoming a blight on their neighborhoods, only one charter school has reached final approval for purchase. Six other buildings were approved for lease-purchase, but thanks to endless delay only two schools obtained approval in time to make necessary repairs for the 1998-99 school year. Sadly, even these were badly harmed by the delays: one incurred over $1 million in accelerated renovation costs and another, which was denied permission to enter the building until 8 days before school started, discovered that $150,000 worth of plumbing and kitchen equipment had been stripped from the building subsequent to signing. Although after much delay DCPS did arrange short-term leases for five other schools, most of the new charter schools struggled to find temporary, often expensive space in commercial property or church basements.

Because of turnover in the DCPS realty office, the situation this year has grown progressively worse, the already unreliable facilities disposition process becoming completely ad hoc and arbitrary.

We strongly recommend that Congress mandate that the D.C. City Council develop a formal written policy that recognizes the right of any public charter school to buy or lease any vacant school building suitable to its program. ^[2] The leases should be for at least 15 years (the length of the initial charter) at the non-profit leasing rate in effect at the time they are signed (currently $1.14 per square foot per year). In addition to helping the charter schools, a fair long-term lease policy will ensure that school buildings continue as public assets. These assets, furthermore, will increase in value on account of the extensive renovations and other improvements that charter schools will make.

Along with the written policy, Congress should mandate that the D.C. City Council develop a formal written procedure to implement the policy. Among other things, the procedure should specify that from the day a public charter school files a written request to lease a vacant building to the lease-signing no more than 90 days may be allowed to pass.

Finally, we urge that the Mayor be authorized to hear appeals from public charter schools where DCPS denies permission to lease vacant buildings or fails to follow the established procedures.

Permit public schools that convert to public charter school status to remain in their school buildings

The Act permits an existing public school to convert to public charter school status if 2/3 of the school's current parents and teachers endorse the conversion. The Act is silent, however, as to where the converted school is to be housed [31-2853.11].

Given that a conversion school must continue to serve neighborhood children for 5 years after conversion, it is only logical and fair that a school that converts should be permitted to remain in the building in which it is housed. Absent a mandate to this regard, however, there is no guarantee that this will happen, especially since current DCPS policy permits the superintendent to claim the buildings of conversion schools for other purposes. We urge Congress to statutorily mandate that conversion schools be permitted to stay in their current buildings.

Restore the September 1 payment to new public charter schools

The original Act authorized the appropriation of $200,000 annually to provide newly chartered schools with an additional initial payment on September 1 of the year they begin operation. This payment, equivalent to 1/12 of their estimated annual allocation, is necessary because DC public schools, including charter schools, are on an October 1 fiscal year. Without the September 1 payment new charter schools have to pay for 13 months of first-year operating costs with only 12 months of funding.

The September 1 payment was inadvertently dropped out of the Act when the section in which it was contained was amended in November of 1997 and should be restored.

Eliminate the conflict of interest arising from DCPS's performance of both local and state educational functions

Currently, DCPS performs the functions of both a local education agency (LEA) and a state education agency (SEA). This unfairly burdens DCPS and creates a conflict of interest: public charter schools are also LEA's but must depend on DCPS for the distribution of federal grants and for other state-level services.

Several proposals are currently under consideration to transfer SEA functions from DCPS to a new or existing city entity. The Coalition welcomes such a division of responsibility and urges that any new entity be constituted in a manner that will ensure equitable treatment of both public charter schools and DCPS schools.

In developing any proposal for an SEA, however, it must be remembered that the Act mandates significant autonomy for public charter schools and establishes that a public charter school is to be monitored and held accountable only by the board from which it received its charter. Any entity to which state functions are assigned must not be permitted to impose an additional layer of bureaucratic control on the public charter schools.

Eliminate hardship to DC families by allowing a sibling preference in public charter school admissions

The Act provides that in the event a public charter schools receives more applications than there are spaces available, it must admit students by a random selection process [31-2853.16(a)-(d)].

Public charter schools are permitted to establish their own calendars. A number of them have longer school days or school years and may have different vacation periods than traditional public schools. This creates a number of undue hardships for families who must place siblings in schools with what may be significantly different schedules or calendars. Among these are difficulties in arranging transportation and childcare complications (including older siblings' inability to look after younger siblings before and after school).

Footnotes

^[1] We know of several families who stayed in the District or returned to the District because their children could attend public charter schools.

^[2] All vacant school buildings should be included in this process regardless of whether they are categorized as “current” or “former” public school property. Under the Act, public charter schools are given an unqualified preference to current public school property, defined as property no longer needed for public school use but still under the jurisdiction of DCPS. As to former public school property, defined as educationally unnecessary property that DCPS has transferred to the Mayor's jurisdiction, the preference holds only so long as preferential treatment will not result in a significant loss of revenue to the District.

Subsequent to the passage of the Act, the BOT and the Mayor declared 24 of the 37 “current” properties to be “former” properties, without adopting a long-range facilities plan or holding public hearings as required by law. This move forced public charter schools into a competitive bidding process for nearly all vacant buildings, against the manifest intent of the preference.