Thursday, June 01, 2006
One Chartering Authority
It appears to me that we are at a very dangerous point in D.C.'s charter school movement. The D.C. Public Charter School Board has closed a second school in 2 years for failing to meet its accountability plan standards at their 5 year review. Today, we have a report from Dion Haynes and Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post on an investigation, started in January, regarding questionable spending by the D.C. School Board office of charter schools. (The D.C. School Board oversees 17 of the 51 charter schools in D.C. The others fall under the D.C Public Charter School Board.) Yesterday the home and office of its executive director Brenda Belton were raided by the F.B.I. This news comes on top of the continuing story regarding the mishandling of charter school funds by a financial organization contracted through the D.C. State Office of Banking and Finance. Not good.
Months ago the editors of the Washington Post called for placing the oversight responsibility of charter school under 1 governing body and they recommended that authority be given to the D.C. Public Charter School Board. At the time I agreed. Now I think its time for all of us with a vital interest in making sure school choice survives in the nation's capital to ask that we make this suggestion a reality. I think there are too many hands in this very large pot of public money.
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Months ago the editors of the Washington Post called for placing the oversight responsibility of charter school under 1 governing body and they recommended that authority be given to the D.C. Public Charter School Board. At the time I agreed. Now I think its time for all of us with a vital interest in making sure school choice survives in the nation's capital to ask that we make this suggestion a reality. I think there are too many hands in this very large pot of public money.
