Ramona Edelin: Back to school with promise, possibilities

As students begin a new school year, the public charter schools that educate nearly half of all DC public school students continue to provide more choices and higher-quality options. And the benefits of these educational programs to students, their communities and our city are increasingly felt — far beyond last week’s improved test scores.

These unique public schools — which are tuition-free and taxpayer-funded but operate independently of the traditional public school system — are free to innovate and are held accountable for improved student performance. By delivering results for students, public charter schools have attracted exponentially more students since the first few opened over two decades ago, with tens of thousands now enrolled and 11,000 on waiting lists for schools that lack the space to accommodate them.

Last week’s standardized test data confirm more than a decade of steadily improving student performance in these assessments, and helps deliver charters’ on-time — in four years — high school graduation rate of 74 percent. To place this in context, some 42 percent of students in the traditional public school system are deemed “on track” to graduate on time, following recent readjustments at DC Public Schools. Importantly, improved test scores have been achieved while schools have enriched curricula and expanded after-school options.

Preparing students for college is an essential component of charters’ success, with 96 percent of charter graduates accepted to four-year universities, providing a gateway to successful careers.

This achievement extends across the District regardless of ZIP code, with charter students in underserved wards 7 and 8 twice as likely to meet state college and career readiness tests as their peers in the traditional system.

DC charters encompass and fully reflect the city’s diversity as they provide this strong start. Charters educate a higher share of economically disadvantaged students than the traditional system; additionally, 95 percent of charter students are African-American or Latino, compared to 88 percent in the DC Public Schools system.

These improvements are rooted in a diversity of educational options offering the adults of tomorrow opportunities to thrive in a fast-changing, knowledge-based, global environment. Quality choices abound — from world languages and bilingual immersion to classics-, law- or public policy-themed curricula; and from nationally acclaimed pre-K programs to college prep-intensive high schools and programs based around “expeditionary learning” and lifetime skills.

But despite this progress, the District’s public charter school students and their families could be better supported by DC’s government, which has yet to provide charters with a level playing field, financially speaking.

Recently, the District government turned five surplus school buildings over to development uses that do not involve public school education. This lamentable decision comes at a time when many more DC students wish to attend charters than are able to do so. The government itself estimates that an additional almost 40,000 high-quality public school seats are needed to serve the student population. This regressive move also is contrary to District law, which requires surplus public school properties to be offered to charters before private developers can bid for them.

Charters must acquire facilities with public funds that represent one-third of what the city spends per student on the traditional system — yet Franklin, Crummell, Grimke, Randall and Hine schoolhouses are set to join the long list of properties that the government has disposed of in this manner. Previously these were left vacant, often in a state of considerable disrepair, an absolutely appallingly bad use of scarce city resources when the city’s most vulnerable children lack adequate school space.

Compounding the lack of social justice for charter students in facilities — which forces many schools into the increasingly competitive and high-priced city real estate market — is the government’s persistent underfunding of charter students compared to their peers in the traditional system.

While city law requires all public schools’ operating costs to be funded from a uniform per-student formula — so that students at the same grade or special education level receive the same dollar amount — the government has consistently underfunded charter students. This is confirmed both by the government’s own study and one undertaken by independent public-school finance expert Mary Levy, who found that the city underfunded each charter school student by an average of $2,150 annually, by financing DCPS, but not charters, outside the statutory formula.

District charters are strong stewards of public funds, despite the city’s persistent underfunding. Charters have restored the confidence of families and significantly strengthened public education academically. Imagine what might be possible if each charter student, and the thousands more on charter waitlists, received the same priority in the DC budget as their siblings, neighbors and friends who attend city-run public schools.

Ramona Edelin is executive director of the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools.