By jonetta rose barras Examiner Columnist
Charter schools in the District have become perennial whiners: The government isn’t turning over valuable, taxable real estate to them; scheduled payments aren’t arriving on time from the Office of the State Superintendent.
But last week, they morphed into bullies.
They threatened in a letter to District elected officials to file a lawsuit against the city if teachers in charter schools do not receive a comparable retroactive lump sum payment expected to be made to D.C. Public Schools teachers as part of a new five-year contract. The agreement hasn’t even been ratified by the Washington Teachers’ Union or approved by the D.C. Council.
“They are very aggressive and very jealous about the funding obtained by DCPS,” Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi said during a council hearing on the schools budget and discussion about potential funding sources for the $140 million five-year contract.
Gandhi told the council it might have to include in its calculation money for charter schools if they follow through with their threat and win. DCPS currently needs about $10 million to fund retroactive pay increases. It has a spending gap of about $23 million, and the fulfilling charter schools’ demands would add $30 million to the tab.
Full disclosure: I’m a huge fan of education choice. I have fought for school vouchers and championed charters. Along with traditional public schools, parents have a full menu of options.
By design, charter schools were given freedoms not available to DCPS: They could hire and fire teachers without consideration of District laws. They could raise money from any source any time. They aren’t required to share any of those funds with the city or DCPS. Further, charter schools haven’t been obligated to accept any child who showed up at their doors — as is DCPS. In other words, charter schools have great pleasures and little pain.
Those benefits gave them the edge in competing with DCPS for students and helped instigate the fastest-growing charter school movement in the country.
Unfortunately, the model has become disfigured. Charters think every time there is an improvement in DCPS, they should receive the same benefits, making a mockery of competition. It’s time to reassess the design.
District elected officials shouldn’t permit themselves to be bullied. They should welcome the lawsuit. They could use it as an opportunity to establish more stringent parameters in its relationship with charter schools, especially as Chancellor Michelle Rhee gets DCPS in fighting shape making it better able to compete.
Jonetta rose barras can be reached at [email protected].
