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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Charter schools are not an ideal solution to improving educational for K-12. But, in DC, the way that charters have been implemented, it has improved educational options for many students (about half of DC public school students attend charters) and helped improve many public ES by keeping MC/UMC families in the city, who now are more willing to give their local ES a try.

The way DC’s charters are managed, it has helped to reduce some (not all) or the corruption at charters seen in other states.  The management includes:
1)Requiring all charters to be non-profits (which comes with required public reporting of financials)
2)Review of each school by the public charter school board (reports and assessments also made publicly available). In DC, the public charter school board is also reviewed every 5 years by the GAO (www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105226)
3) The move to a true lottery system that allows any family equal shot at a spot (although yes, it does require an involved parent with access to the internet to enter the lottery and parent’s ability to transport the child to the school if they get a spot)

Ideally DC would use its vast budget to actually improve dc public schools and/or provide more necessary wrap-around services needed to better support at-risk and lower performing students. However, in previous years when DC had ample budget it has continued NOT to make any impactful changes. In the mean time, charter schools have given 50% of kids an educational option that they feel is better than their local public school. Not all charters are great, but clearly something is wrong with many of the DC public schools if 50% of the students choose to go elsewhere.  The more I learn about and experience the DC school system, the more I am beginning to believe that there are systemic issues with the management of the school system, rather than lack of funding (at least in the past 10 years).

Charters, as implemented in DC, have improved things (at least marginally). However, in other states with the lack of oversight and in cases of voucher systems, etc. where the option is not equitably open to all students (I.e. parochial/private schools can pick and choose students), charters (and voucher programs)  seem like an easy opportunity to increase segregation and allow government funds to be misused without improving the educational opportunities for any significant number of students.

Now that budgets are tightening in DC, I don’t see any improvements to public schools likely to be made, and charters continue to make DC more palatable to families who would otherwise move to MD or VA.

[/quote]
While I don't know much about charters in DC I agree with most of this, sometimes charters are good, but I think they more often are plagued with issues and poor management while also pulling funds from public schools. I do feel a bit hypocritical though, because I am a public school teacher who sends their child to an "option school" which is it's own type of pulling from neighborhood schools.[/quote]

I send my child to a similar school and I make no excuses for it. These kinds of schools are real public schools, as opposed to charters which are not.[/quote]

In DC, the charters are public schools.  Same thing as the "option schools" you guys are talking about.  [/quote]

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