October 19, 2000

Testimony of Robert I. Cane, Executive Director, Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS)
District of Columbia Council Committee on Education, Libraries, & Recreation Public Hearing
Public Hearing
Public Charter School Oversight

Good afternoon Mr. Chavous, members of the Committee, and staff. My name is Robert Cane, and I'm executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a non-profit support group for the District's public charter schools. Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to testify.

Overview of the Last Year's Progress

On balance, this has been a very good year for the public charter schools in the District. Last year at this time we had just under 7,000 students and a budget of around $50 million. We were beginning to experience what was to become a terrible financial crisis brought on by a combination of insufficient funding and chaotic administration of those funds by the Control Board and the CFO. We were sparring with the former superintendent over the use of decaying school buildings and were soon to be in a pitched battle with her over Paul Junior High's ultimately successful attempt to become a public charter school. Misconceptions about the nature of public charter schools were rife, and these misconceptions were easily exploited by those who wished us ill.

As we speak today we have 10,000 students on 38 public charter school campuses, an enrollment increase of 30%. Thanks to your leadership and the cooperation of the Mayor we have full funding for the first time in the 4-year history of the District's public charter schools. We have reached initial agreement with the Mayor over the use of the surplus school properties, and we are working with the new superintendent, Dr. Vance, on a plan that would allow public charter schools to make use of underutilized space in current DCPS school buildings.

Perhaps most encouraging, the people of the District are beginning to understand that public charter schools, far from being a threat to District public education, are a critical element in returning public education to its long-lost vitality. More and more of our residents now know that public charter schools are public in every sense of the word: publicly funded, free and open to all without screening of any kind, serving the District's neediest kids, and accountable for results to the elected Board of Education or the DC Public Charter School Board, whose members are appointed by the Mayor.

Public Charter School Accountability

The public accountability of public charter schools deserves another word. Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, public charter schools are held to a far higher standard of accountability than are traditional public schools. The accountability scheme for public charter schools has nine components:

• A rigorous application process that fewer than 1/3 of applicants survive
• Annual financial audits by independent accountants
• The requirement to create a detailed accountability plan
• Multiple performance audits each year
• The requirement to administer standardized tests
• The requirement to obtain formal academic accreditation
• The threat of immediate loss of the charter for financial mismanagement
• A high stakes performance review every five years that results in the loss of the charter if academic goals have not been met
• The accountability of the marketplace: run a good school or lose your students to a better one.

Challenges for the Upcoming Year

Although we've made good progress over the last year, serious and potentially debilitating challenges remain.

Funding

The first of these is getting the schools paid on time. As I'm sure you understand, on-time payment of funds owed to the schools is critical for their continuing operation. Unfortunately, in past years the CFO has devoted insufficient thought and staff to the process, impeding the charter schools' ability to carry out their missions and damaging their credit ratings. We have reason to hope for better this year. We have a new funding law that makes payment dates and processes more clear (again thanks to your leadership and that of the Committee) and the CFO apparently has assigned more staff to the charter schools. This staff has so far shown itself to be efficient and thoughtful about the disbursement process. We are cautiously optimistic, ever mindful of the Office's past unwillingness to work with the charter schools to smooth out difficulties and its tendency to blame the public charter schools for payment delays rather than to take a careful look at the impact of its own policies and procedures.

Facilities

Another critical problem for the public charter schools continues to be finding adequate space in which to open and into which to grow. As the ever-increasing enrollment in the public charter schools demonstrates, there is a deep well of demand for better public schooling among the District's parents. Even with an increase of more than 3,000 students this year, many schools have waiting lists.

We also know that there are plenty of creative and dedicated people willing to put themselves on the line by starting public charter schools.

But as we all also know, available commercial space in the District is very limited, and what space there is costs far too much for most charter schools' budgets.

If the will of the District's parents is not to be frustrated, we need a concerted effort by the Council, the Mayor, and the Superintendent to find adequate and suitable space for these public schools. As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Vance has shown himself to be open to working with the public charter schools. This collaboration may provide some space for the schools in current DCPS buildings in the short-term. Dr. Vance also has reversed his predecessor and agreed to include charter school space needs in the long range facilities planning process, which may lead to some relief over the long-term. In addition, the Mayor has made available three vacant surplus school buildings.

All this is helpful, but much more is needed:

• The Council and the Mayor should encourage DCPS to make unneeded space available to the public charter schools
• The Council should encourage the Mayor to make as many of the surplus school buildings as possible available to the public charter schools
• The Council and the Mayor should make it possible for the public charter schools to gain access to unneeded and surplus city buildings and empty land.

This concludes my remarks. We are very grateful for the continued support of the Education Committee and the Council.