Ramona Edelin: What candidates need to know about public charter schools

As Election Day beckons, DC voters’ thoughts turn to how they feel about the District now, their hopes for it in four years’ time, and who might best take the city in their preferred direction. There is no shortage of recent news for voters to consider — from the high-profile resignation of the DC Public Schools (DCPS) chancellor, to Amazon’s potential location of its second headquarters here, to the controversial decision to close the family shelter at DC General.

But as new terms of office begin in 2019 and new elected officials take their seats, it is important that our representatives know and understand the issues. DC has come a long way since the Home Rule Act nearly 45 years ago. This is the 12th mayoral election under home rule, and Mayor Muriel Bowser is our seventh mayor under this structure. This legislation created our 13-member DC Council with a chairman, four at-large members (with no more than two of them affiliated with the majority party), and eight ward council members. Seven of the DC Council seats are on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Also up for election are four seats on the DC State Board of Education. Though this board has a purely advisory role on education matters (aside from approval authority over certain specified policies), its representatives need to be fully informed about DC’s education issues so they can provide advice that is relevant and constructive.

For starters, public education in the District is provided by two distinct mechanisms: the traditional public school system, founded in 1805, and public charter schools that date from the 1995 School Reform Act. Charters provide a taxpayer-funded, tuition-free public education to 48 percent of public school students and are open to all DC-resident students on a first-come, first-served basis; they are academically non-selective and non-sectarian. Public charter schools are independent of the DC Public Schools system and are held accountable for improved student performance and school governance standards.

To be effective, elected representatives need to be familiar with many aspects of public education. Among these are the functions of the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education, which include oversight of early learning, K-12 and postsecondary education; data assessment and research; school operations; student transportation; health and wellness; legal compliance; parental resources; and facilities and fleet management. The state superintendent needs to have a multidisciplinary understanding of many issues; otherwise the District risks a repeat of recent scandals in the traditional public school system, including the inflation of graduation numbers and officials improperly securing places for their own children at oversubscribed schools.

Other aspects of the public policy landscape also are important to understand, especially the often poorly grasped achievements and challenges of the charter schools that educate nearly half of DC’s public school students.

Many factors lie behind this vote of confidence in these schools of choice. The 50 percent increase in the high school graduation rate among charters compared to that which prevailed before they arrived on the scene tells part of the story. This is something that DC residents can count on: Unlike the traditional public schools, the graduation rates of charters are guaranteed to be accurate. For years, the DC Public Charter School Board has audited the transcript of every graduating student, a safeguard against fraud and self-serving grade inflation, and an important qualifier given the recent problems over the validity of DCPS data.

Charters have spread academic gains across the city, well beyond its wealthy enclaves. The on-time high school graduation rate for African-American charter students is almost identical to the average rate for charter students overall. And charters have been especially effective in the District’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. Charter students in underserved wards 7 and 8 are twice as likely to meet state standards for college and career readiness as their peers in the traditional system.

Steady improvements in citywide standardized test scores have been achieved over many years. These improvements in school quality have occurred while curricula have been enriched as before- and after-school options multiplied.

Despite this progress, the District government persistently underfunds charter students — flouting DC law, which requires equal funding for every DC public school student, charter or traditional, enrolled at the same grade or special education level.

The local government also consistently fails to allow charters to acquire surplus school properties before developers can bid for them — just recently disposing of five former schoolhouses in this way — and provides $1 in facilities funds for every charter student, while it spends $3 for every DCPS student.

Our elected officials need to know that charters’ achievements deserve support — from Nov. 6 onward.

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