Charters and Fenty's Mission

A front page Washington Post story yesterday looked at the large and growing share of District of Columbia students served by public charter schools. One-in-four D.C. students currently attends a charter, and slots for thousands more charter students are expected to come online in the next few years--even as the number of students in District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) system continues to decline.

The growth of D.C.'s charter schools reflects the very real dissatisfaction of parents and many city leaders with years of poor performance by DCPS--the same dissatisfaction that led the council to vote last week to give Mayor Adrian Fenty control over DCPS. Not all of the charter schools are an improvement: several have been closed due to poor performance, and several others are struggling or mediocre. But research shows that parents in general are happier with their charter school choices, and the fact that bad charter schools are being closed stands in sharp contrast to DCPS, which continues to operate schools that are unsafe, underperforming or dying a slow death of attrition. And D.C. is also home to a handful of really wonderful charter schools. As Mayor Fenty faces the daunting challenge of figuring out how to fix education in the District of Columbia, he should learn from the city's best charter schools and use charter schooling as a tool to address the desperate educational needs in many of our city's neighborhoods. "Fixing DCPS" is an important goal, but it's NOT how Fenty should define his mission. His real mission should be ensuring that all of D.C.'s kids can attend, free of charge, a high-quality school--DCPS, charter, or private--that prepares them to become a contributing citizen of the District of Columbia.