DC Public Charter School Board

Don’t expect the DC Council to hold charters to the same transparency and sunshine standards as traditional public schools. That was the unmistakable message I heard telegraphed last week by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and at-large…

The assembly had all the trappings of your average pep rally. The cheer squad warmed up the middle school crowd, and an African drum group made up of fifth-graders performed. But the television cameras and the arrival of the mayor were big…

Having retired from the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) eight years ago, I have the luxury of paying only selective attention to arguments about public education. Lately, however, a debate over how to ensure accountability for our…

A few years before Stormiyah Denson-Jackson took her own life in her dormitory at SEED Public Charter School, Scott Pearson told the leader of FOCUS, a charter lobbying group, to ignore the mandates of the South Capitol Street Memorial…

In what has become an annual rite of spring, the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) last month approved the opening of five new charter schools: one elementary, two middle and two high schools. From 2012 to 2018, the board approved the…

Last week the DC Public Charter School Board rightfully approved five applications to create new schools. These charter schools hold the promise to support students who live in wards that lack quality options, or target student populations…

When I read the email exchange between Michael Musante, a lobbyist for local charter schools, and Scott Pearson, executive director of the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB), I became enraged. I think, perhaps, you would have had a…

The conversation with Tomeika Bowden, the spokesperson for the DC Public Charter School Board, has turned intense. I have been trying to understand whether the organization reviewed the management agreement between the SEED Public Charter…

In DC nearly half of all public school students attend charter schools, rather than schools in the traditional public system known as DC Public Schools (DCPS). Although the charter schools are “public” in a sense — they are open to…