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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If WTU has taught us anything, it’s that we need more charters.[/quote]

Agreed. I think the charter sector nationwide needs controls and transparency (and especially the elimination of any for-profit involvement) but the attack on the charter sector as a whole is driven by the teacher’s union. I don’t trust their perspective anymore, as they have made it abundantly clear they represent the interests of teachers, not students.[/quote]

I’d be more pro charter if they didn’t counsel out “hard to teach” kids or kids with IEPs. I guess public schools will still have to be around for those kids that the charters don’t want. [/quote]

If the per pupil funding was higher for charters (and they had access to underused DCPS buildings) I think charters would be more willing and able to serve the “hard to teach”. They are already on a shoestring, by design, in comparison to DCPS. The teachers union gets what it gets. [/quote]

There are very few underused DCPS buildings anymore.  Some have space but it is in poor condition or is not enough space for anyone to want.

If the PCSB would shut down some of the low performing charter schools instead of making excuses and turning a blind eye and [b]that would free up some buildings[/b].[/quote]

And given the enrollment growth within DCPS, it would be foolish to give up any buildings.  They will need them all in the not-that-distant future.  DCPS has to plan for the long term and guarantee space for everyone.  Not just slam their door like charters can.  And after the sh*i-fit Appletree and charter boosters threw about moving out of Jefferson at the end of their lease, DCPS can't have confidence that a short-term lease won't result in a big ugly dispute.  [/quote]

The charter board has and that has freed up some buildings. Chavez, the arts charter school, etc, - other charter schools moved into those buildings. Some charters built new buildings like Rocketship. The reality is that real estate is hard in a city like DC. Access to DCPS buildings doesn't seem to be the major issue. Access to financing to build, renovate and/or lease suitable property seems like a bigger issue.[/quote]

That is what Building Hope exists to help with.  They work with the schools that they see as the strongest.  If they didn't accept someone's financing proposal, maybe it wasn't a strong application.  DCPS has to purchase land and buildings too in certain areas.

I've always been puzzled by the idea that DCPS has tons of unused space and is unreasonably refusing to give it up.  DCPS needs swing spaces or it's really hard to renovate anything.  A lot of the school buildings DCPS or the city owns are in awful condition.  Slater and Langston, for example, were RFPd earlier this year, but I don't know if anyone even applied.  You can total up unused classroom space, but it tends to be a handful of classrooms here and there, and typically not on the ground floor of a building as is required for preschool.  Could you run a tiny little school in five or six rooms on the top floor of a DCPS building?  Sure.  But there aren't a lot of schools that want to.  And a lot of the space that's currently vacant will be used in the future as DCPS schools continue to grow their enrollment.  So a short-term lease of a few classrooms without much access to the larger spaces or outdoor space just isn't that appealing.  If it works out, great.  But it's hard to see that being a big part of the solution.

The idea that DCPS should close its low-performing schools similarly doesn't make much sense.  DCPS has a commitment to provide every student a by-right seat within a reasonable distance of their home (the distance varies by grade).  They can only shut down a school if they have a plan for how to offer a by-right seat to every student, including all with IEPs.  So there would have to be enough capacity close enough to every address-- not just now, but for years to come.  DCPS has already consolidated a lot of its schools in the past two decades and has about maxed out what can be done in that area.  There just aren't a lot of options left.  And DCPS has to hold on to some capacity because if enrollment continues to grow, it will be very hard and expensive to figure out where to put kids if they sell off their buildings now.  That is why they are hanging onto, for example, Spingarn.  If a charter wanted to take on the responsibility of offering by-right seats that could be different.  But remember, DCPS once did hand Dunbar over to an outside operator, and it didn't go well.  Because offering by-right seats to all comers is a big part of what makes public education difficult.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/autonomy-considered-as-way-to-improve-dcs-struggling-dunbar-high-school/2014/01/11/05c836d2-7a06-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html[/quote]

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