Reply to An intrinsic problem to the DC charter system

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So - yes, charters being experiments and such seems to invite parents to criticize. But it does go to show that some mechanism for dispute resolution is needed. And, DCPS as we also know has plenty of its own problems. On both fronts, I am sure there is expertise out there about how to better run schools of both kinds. Having no mechanism for raising issues seems like a lose-lose situation for both DCPS and Charter....[/quote]

There IS a mechanism -- each school's board. But most parents are reluctant to do what it would take to get action. They don't want to be 'outed' or seen as 'that parent.'

Have parents organized and flooded their board with petitions or letters or phone calls; picketed outside their meetings or outside school at dropoff; gone to the media; run a social media campaign; talked to the OSSE ombudsman? You have to use all the same things that people do when a government agency or elected official is being unresponsive.

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Also, MV tried this and the campaign was very successful from a grass roots perspective (about half the parents signed a comment letter many, many parents signed up to testify and others wrote personalized letters). The charter board still approved the expansion and the Board has had minimal turnover since then (I think just a couple new members) and school hasn't really changed much. Bottom like is it is very hard to influence school's board since they are not elected. Charter school board is not really accountable to the school's parents.[/quote]

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