Mayor Adrian Fenty has won control of 142 public schools, but the city is actually losing control of55 charter schools.
Some 20,000 students attend D.C. charter schools, and if the rate of new enrollment continues at its current pace through 2013, there will be more students in charter schools than in traditional public schools. The Public Charter School Board, a government agency, regulates the $300 million-plus charter school program.
Although publicly funded, charter schools aren’t subject to the same rules as public schools. Proponents say this allows the schools to be more flexible than the traditional schools.
“I challenge you to talk with parents of students who come to a charter school having hated going to school before, coming in three grades behind,” charter board spokeswoman Nona Richardson said, “and after a year improving to perhaps one or two grades behind, loving going to school, feeling like teachers are invested in them and like they have a future after all.”
But test scores in the charter schools have been poor, and some of them have been wracked with waste and abuse. A growing group of critics say that the charter board and charter school operators are too secretive to be trusted with such a huge responsibility — and with so much money.
“I have a lot of concerns because there seems to be a lack of transparency,” said District Council Member Tommy Wells, D-Ward 6, a former member of the Board of Education. Wells inserted language into the schools takeover bill that requires the charter board to obey open records and open meetings laws.
Richardson said it wasn’t needed. “Our board has been consistently open about all of our practices and policies,” she said.
Gina Arlotto is not impressed. The mother of three public school children, Arlotto is the leader of Save Our Schools Coalition, a small nonprofit organization that advocates traditional public education.
“How much money are we going to waste on charter schools before people realize that three-quarters of these people are hustlers?” Arlotto said.
Fenty said he does not want to be confrontational with the charter board.
