Harry Jaffe
D.C. charter school boss deserves a full hearing
By: Harry Jaffe
Examiner Columnist
December 19, 2008
Why has D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton called for Tom Nida’s head?
The chairman of the Public Charter School Board must be deposed, Norton said, because of “astonishing, acknowledged and systemic conflicts of interest and financial self-dealing.”
I fear Ms. Norton may be acting on impulse. Worse, she was moved to call for Nida’s ouster based only on an article in the other daily newspaper.
In great detail, The Washington Post reported last Sunday how Nida, a banker, has helped charter schools get loans for buildings and programs. From the outside, this relationship seems ripe for conflicts of interest.
“For a long time, the charter board has taken the position that it is not subject to any authority or scrutiny from the District,” Attorney General Peter Nickles told me. “I disagree with that.”
The Public Charter School Board is chartered by Congress, and its members are appointed by the mayor from a slate of candidates provided by the feds. Chaired by Nida for four years, the board has helped grow D.C.’s charters into a robust system of 60 schools on 96 campuses. They educate more than a third of the city’s students, and many do a much better job than the city’s public schools.
The charters are funded by the city but operate independently of the school system.
“We provide the money,” Nickles says, “so we have authority. “It’s important to have clear conflict of interest rules. We’re looking into these issues.”
What Nickles will find is a board of volunteers who oversee a small staff that — from the accounts of most charter schools — have run a tough and disciplined system. And Nida, rather than being a self-dealing banker, is seen as a highly ethical pioneer.
“In our work with Tom Nida,” says Susan Schaeffler, founding principal of KIPP academies, “we have always found him to be working in the best interests of children and completely professional. He’s held the charters to a really high standard. I think we are as strong as we are because of the oversight provided by the board and Tom Nida.”
A closer look will find that Tom Nida is a product of D.C. Public Schools. He graduated from Kramer Junior High and Anacostia High. He became a banker and returned to the city as one of the first and only bankers willing to lend money to charter schools.
“It was because of Tom that other bankers were willing to lend to the charters,” says Robert Cane, who directs FOCUS, an advocacy group for charter schools.
Now, it may shock some people that banks make money when they loan funds. It’s called interest. And it may be hard for some public school ideologues to accept that charter schools have the freedom and the right to get loans and buy buildings, but that is the law.
Whether Tom Nida has benefited from his position is a good question, but neither the press nor Eleanor Holmes Norton has answered it.
Nickles will.
The chairman of the Public Charter School Board must be deposed, Norton said, because of “astonishing, acknowledged and systemic conflicts of interest and financial self-dealing.”
I fear Ms. Norton may be acting on impulse. Worse, she was moved to call for Nida’s ouster based only on an article in the other daily newspaper.
In great detail, The Washington Post reported last Sunday how Nida, a banker, has helped charter schools get loans for buildings and programs. From the outside, this relationship seems ripe for conflicts of interest.
“For a long time, the charter board has taken the position that it is not subject to any authority or scrutiny from the District,” Attorney General Peter Nickles told me. “I disagree with that.”
The Public Charter School Board is chartered by Congress, and its members are appointed by the mayor from a slate of candidates provided by the feds. Chaired by Nida for four years, the board has helped grow D.C.’s charters into a robust system of 60 schools on 96 campuses. They educate more than a third of the city’s students, and many do a much better job than the city’s public schools.
The charters are funded by the city but operate independently of the school system.
“We provide the money,” Nickles says, “so we have authority. “It’s important to have clear conflict of interest rules. We’re looking into these issues.”
What Nickles will find is a board of volunteers who oversee a small staff that — from the accounts of most charter schools — have run a tough and disciplined system. And Nida, rather than being a self-dealing banker, is seen as a highly ethical pioneer.
“In our work with Tom Nida,” says Susan Schaeffler, founding principal of KIPP academies, “we have always found him to be working in the best interests of children and completely professional. He’s held the charters to a really high standard. I think we are as strong as we are because of the oversight provided by the board and Tom Nida.”
A closer look will find that Tom Nida is a product of D.C. Public Schools. He graduated from Kramer Junior High and Anacostia High. He became a banker and returned to the city as one of the first and only bankers willing to lend money to charter schools.
“It was because of Tom that other bankers were willing to lend to the charters,” says Robert Cane, who directs FOCUS, an advocacy group for charter schools.
Now, it may shock some people that banks make money when they loan funds. It’s called interest. And it may be hard for some public school ideologues to accept that charter schools have the freedom and the right to get loans and buy buildings, but that is the law.
Whether Tom Nida has benefited from his position is a good question, but neither the press nor Eleanor Holmes Norton has answered it.
Nickles will.
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