The Other 25% of D.C. Students: Fenty's Plans for the District's Charters

D.C. edu-watchers have been abuzz lately--with good reason--over Mayor Adrian Fenty's plans to take over operation of the city's public school system. Less attention has been devoted to Fenty's plans for charters, which serve 25% of D.C.'s public school students. But Theola Labbé takes up the issue in today's Post.

There are three key elements of Fenty's plans related to charters. First, the plan would strip the existing Board of Education of its chartering authority and transfer oversight responsibility for schools chartered by the BoE to the city's other chartering authority, the Public Charter School Board (PCSB). In addition, Fenty would require PCSB to review school charters every three years, instead of the current five-year reviews, and would give the State Education Office greater oversight authority over PCSB, including allowing schools to appeal charter denials or revocations to SEO and allowing SEO to revoke charters itself.

Labbé's piece focuses primarily on the concerns some BoE-chartered school leaders have about shifting to the PCSB, which some view as less publicly-responsive, since it's appointed by the Mayor rather than elected. It made sense for some school leaders to prefer the Board of Education earlier in the history of D.C.'s charter movement, because there was a perception that charters had been Congressionally-imposed on the District and some charter leaders felt affiliating with the semi-elected Board of Education gave them greater public legitimacy. But when you consider that the elected Board of Ed. itself wants to get out of the chartering business, that half the Board of Ed's members are already mayoral appointees, and that Fenty's plan would make virtually all the key decisionmakers for public education in D.C. mayoral appointees, the concern seems less compelling. More significantly, the definition of publicness in charter school oversight should not be whether an authorizer is composed of elected or appointed officials, but how well it serves the public good. And the scandals of the past year have made clear that the Board of Education has done a much poorer job executing its public trust as a charter authorizer than has the Public Charter School Board. That's why I think putting all the existing charters under PCSB oversight is a good part of Fenty's plan.

I'm more concerned about some of the provisions regarding SEO oversight of the PCSB. I have studied charter schooling in other states where it was clear that there was a need for greater state-level oversight of charter school authorizers, but the PCSB's record and reputation do not suggest a major need for greater oversight of authorizers in D.C. Three-year rather than five-year reviews for all schools would dramatically increase PCSB's workload, as well as the burden on charter schools. I understand the call for more frequent reviews, but at the very least the new legislation should allow five-year reviews for established charters with a strong record of compliance and performance. This is just being smart about where to devote oversight resources. The charter school community is also understandably concerned about provisions giving the State Education Office the right to revoke charters.

But my biggest disappointment with Fenty's plans as they concern charter schools is what I don't see. First, I'd like more clarity about how the new Facilities Construction and Maintenance Authority will ensure that children attending charter schools benefit from new investments in D.C. school buildings just as much as their non-charter peers do. Second, I wish Fenty had considered taking on some charter authorizing responsibilities himself. The Public Charter School Board is a good authorizer, but it's in the best interests of D.C.'s charter sector--and indeed the overall educational ecology here--to have multiple high-quality authorizers operating in the District. Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson is doing a great job of chartering schools there. Fenty should consider following Peterson's lead and establishing a new charter authorizing office under the Deputy Mayor for Education. This would create another high-quality charter school authorizer in D.C. and send a signal that Fenty cares about and has a stake the city's charter school sector as well as DCPS.