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By Lauren Outlaw
We hope everyone’s new year is off to an excellent start! Here are a few noteworthy articles from the first month of 2014. A lot of exciting things are happening in the charter school movement in the District. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!
Education Dept. allows public charter schools to hold weighted lottery [The Washington Post, 1/29/14]
Lyndsey Layton reports on the newly released Department of Education policy that will now allow public charter schools receiving federal funds to give an admissions preference to low-income students, minorities, and other disadvantaged students through a weighted lottery, if State law permits. The department states, “weighted lotteries can be an effective tool that can complement public charter schools’ efforts to serve more educationally disadvantaged students.” For charter schools in the District, the D.C. School Reform Act would first have to be amended to allow such a preference. For more on this exciting development, read this article. For the new federal policy, click here.
A push for D.C. Public Schools to share space with charter schools, nonprofits [The Washington Post, 1/29/14]
This article highlights the ongoing struggle public charter schools in the District have had acquiring public school facilities DCPS is no longer using. Emma Brown discusses co-location, one of the recommendations of the recently released Adequacy Study, as a solution to this problem. This would allow for under-enrolled traditional schools to share space with charter schools, city agencies, and community-based organizations. Currently, Achievement Prep and Bridges public charter schools both operate in co-located DCPS spaces. Read this article for more on co-location. For more on charters’ ongoing facilities battle, click here.
The D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education's Adequacy Study [The Examiner, 1/28/14]
Mark Lerner announces the release of the Adequacy Study, commissioned by the Deputy Mayor for Education. The “most groundbreaking” for the D.C. charter school movement is the recommendation that all funding for public schools, whether traditional or charter, go through the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula. FOCUS Executive Director Robert Cane stated “the Adequacy Study report represents a huge breakthrough for the charter movement in D.C…the report acknowledges that the government annually provides DCPS students with tens of millions of dollars more funding than charter school students. Mayor Gray has a great opportunity to make things right, and to fulfill his campaign promises.” Click here for a copy of the Adequacy Study. To learn more about the campaign for equitable funding, click here.
D.C. could learn from the Franklin School [The Washington Post, 1/17/14]
In this letter to the editor, FOCUS ED Robert Cane proposes giving the Franklin School building to a public charter school. Mr. Cane calls attention to the law requiring the D.C. government to offer surplus school buildings to public charter schools before developers and the fact that the government has historically ignored this law.
Charter school leaders call for employees’ children admission preference [The Examiner, 1/16/14]
Mark Lerner recounts a letter to D.C. Councilmember David Catania from numerous charter school leaders calling for an amendment to the D.C. School Reform Act to allow an admission preference for children of charter school staff. School leaders argue this will help them retain high-quality teachers by keeping teachers invested in their schools. “Competition for excellent teachers is high, especially considering the funding inequity between charters and traditional schools. Retention of good teachers reinforces a successful school’s culture,” the letter says.
N.Y.-based Democracy Prep to take over struggling Imagine Southeast charter school [The Washington Post, 1/10/14]
This summer, Democracy Prep, a New York-based charter school operator, will take over Imagine Southeast, a large public charter elementary school in Ward 8. Democracy Prep Congress Heights Public Charter School, the school’s new name, will continue serving students in pre-kindergarten through grade six. The school will also continuing offering single-sex classes. For more about this takeover, read this article.