Charter Schools

Charter board’s embarrassing testimony to D.C. Council

mlerner10 Charter School Enrollment, Charter Schools, D.C. Council, PCSB Leave a comment

After being tipped off by the Washington Post’s Lauren Lumpkin that there has been a D.C. Council Committee of the Whole hearing regarding the sudden closure of Eagle Academy PCS, I watched the three hour session. I have to say that the representatives from our the Public Charter School Board, Dr. Michelle Walker-David, executive director; William Henderson, chief operating officer; and Shantelle Wright, newly elected chair, did not inspire confidence.

I truly wish the three of them would have offered from the start that the charter board completely missed the sad situation about the financial demise of Eagle. Instead, the Council representatives were given assurances that improvements would be made and assertions that the responsibility of the school is up to its volunteer board of directors. These explanations only created frustration from those sitting on the dais.

However, the story of this charter school is relatively simple as explained by Friendship PCS CEO Patricia Brantley in her testimony and by Chairman Phil Mendelson in his observations. For years, the enrollment of Eagle was dropping and not just by a few students here and there. Over about four years the student body dropped by more than half. As Ms. Lumpkin reported, “More than half the student body left between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, falling from 838 to 412 children.” Charter school funding is directly tied to the student count, so this institution was doomed much earlier than last summer when the board finally got around to issuing a financial corrective action plan. The result of this malpractice by the PCSB was that the families of over 350 students and about 100 staff members had to scramble to find new places to go six days before the start of the school year.

However, instead of the board taking responsibility for a situation it helped create, by a 4 to 3 vote it rejected the takeover of Eagle by Friendship. As an exasperated Mr. Mendelson posed to the charter sector representative, “What did you think was going to happen to Eagle” after this decision was made? The school had no more money, so it was left with no choice but to relinquish its charter. Its fate was sealed.

Now, the D.C. Council is considering legislation to prevent this scenario from reoccurring. It may require members of charter boards to undergo annual training in reading school balance sheets and in understanding their role in managing these facilities. In the good old days, when there was a D.C. charter school movement, I would argue that as an independent sector, the board could tell the Council to take a hike. But now, with weak and perhaps incompetent leadership, the PCSB will simply bow their heads and let the legislative body do with it as it wishes.

It is time for a change at the top of the PCSB.

Jeanne Allen for U.S. Education Secretary

mlerner10 Center for Education Reform, Charter Schools, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

I, together with numerous others, are highly disturbed by many of the recent cabinet nominations by President-Elect Donald Trump. One way that he could turn this pattern around for the good would be to nominate Jeanne Allen to be the next Secretary of Education. Since 1993, Jeanne has been the founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform. A week ago I attended her organization’s STOP for Education event at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. After listening to the many educational pioneers who are creating options for families and children not offered by their traditional school systems, it made me realize that she is the right person for this job at the right time. Ms. Allen has been a fierce fighter for the ability of families to pick the school right for their kids from the time her group was formed.

I was introduced to the idea of school choice by David Boaz, the long-time executive director of the CATO Institute, shortly after learning about the libertarian think tank perhaps in 1992 or 1993. My profound interest in this approach led me to spend over 25 years in D.C.’s charter school movement, serving as a volunteer on three charter school boards and becoming chair of two of them. I am most proud of leading Washington Latin PCS in its acquisition of a permanent facility, and significantly strengthening its finances.

The charter sector has made a lot of sense to me. Schools receive freedom to operate while being accountable to the public for their performance. But now, after observing the recent antics of our local Public Charter School Board, I realize that this bargain is in the eyes of the beholder. For example, if you take a look at the DCPCSB’s Transparency Hub you will get an idea of the plethora of ways charter schools are regulated in this city. Freedom is certainly not the word that would come to mind. In regard to accountability, there is a sliding scale there as well. At the last PCSB monthly meeting, a school that has not been following the law in regard to caring for special education students since 2022 received a Notice of Concern.

I have come around to the thinking of Ms. Allen. Forget the accountability based upon test scores. Let’s create as many options as we can for parents and let them drive the educational marketplace. I remember when I first became involved with charters, critics said parents, especially those from low income neighborhoods, would never be able to make a wise choice regarding where their children should be taught. From day one, I found that nothing could be further from the truth.

Ms. Allen has been a pure choice advocate since she entered this arena. With the recent emphasis across the country on the power of parents in public education, her time for a formal national leadership position has arrived. Her selection for Education Secretary would bring a smile to the faces of many who have not been happy in recent days.

The D.C. charter board is broken

mlerner10 Charter Schools, D.C. Council, Mayor Bowser, PCSB Leave a comment

A few days ago a well-written Washington Post article by Lauren Lumpkin regarding Seed PCS and its failure to obey the law in caring for special education children caught my eye, so I decided to watch on video the May meeting of the DC Public Charter School Board. What I witnessed shocked me.

An audit of the charter’s special education program demonstrated violations of both the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act and D.C. Municipals Regulations Chapter 30, according to PCSB staff. The audit was completed due to complaints made to the board by at least three Seed staff members. Seed did receive a Notice of Concern, and several board members expressed their consternation about the school’s inability to properly care for their students. But here’s the part that really disturbed me as a supporter of our local charter school movement. From the charter board’s staff findings:

“DC PCSB staff identified similar instances of noncompliance in SY 2022 – 23 through Effective Organization Meetings (EOM) in November 2022 (Attachment A) and February 2023 (Attachment B), and a special education audit in March 2023 (Attachment D and F). Despite these interventions, SEED PCS remains out of compliance, indicating a patten of repeated violations” (page 2).

If a charter is notified that it is not following the law, and then fails to immediately correct the situation, then a Notice of Concern is inappropriate. This school should have its charter revoked. It appears that the board had information that it failed to act upon.

The situation with Seed echoes the board’s action regarding the closing of Eagle Academy PCS six days before the start of the school year. Clearly, there were signs much earlier that the charter was in financial difficulty. In fact, the sudden shuttering, and failure to allow Friendship PCS to takeover the school, generated a list of 21 questions from D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, executive director of the PCSB, most of them revolving around when the charter board realized that the school was short of cash. You can read the inquiries and responses here.

Why is the PCSB failing to act in an expeditious manner when issues with schools arise, and why did the board fail to allow Eagle to continue to operate as a part of Friendship’s network” One education reformer I spoke to about these matters attributed the board’s dysfunction to the fact that Mayor Muriel Bowser no longer consults with the charter community before nominating trustees to serve on the board. The individual stated that the consequence of this process is that board members join who have no knowledge of the sector or the PCSB’s role.

My own take on the situation is that we have a lack of leadership at the PCSB. Early in the sector’s history it had the team of Tom Nida as chair and Josephine Baker as executive director. The pair seemed in perfect harmony regarding their emphasis on quality and growth. The same strategic direction characterized a succession of strong chairs working with executive director Scott Pearson. Now we have a chair who apparently changed her vote to “no” shortly before the board was to decide whether Friendship would get the green light to run Eagle. There is speculation that pressure by Ms. Bowser to reduce the number of elementary school seats in Ward 8 was the reason behind Ms. Lea Crusey’s reversal.

As is said in education, it is time to get back to fundamentals. The same goes for DC Public Charter School Boards mission of quality and growth.

Patricia Brantley, Friendship PCS CEO, remarks at the inaugural DC Charter School Alliance Gala

mlerner10 Charter Schools, DC Charter School Alliance Leave a comment

Last Friday evening Michele and I were honored to be guests at the inaugural gala of the DC Charter School Alliance. On this beautiful night in the nation’s capital Friendship Public Charter School Chief Executive Officer Patricia Brantley was presented with the Dr. Ramona H. Edelin Legacy Award. Her inspirational remarks are below:

I met Ramona Hoage Edelin in the early 90s — 30 years ago at the feet of Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. When Ramona walked in the room, the one thing you knew is that you were in the presence of someone who cared about you before they ever even met you. That was one of my favorite things about working in civil rights with Dr. Height. Ramona cared about us before she ever met us, she cared about every young person. I think that’s why she was one of Dr. Height’s closest confidants, because Height was the same. Dr. Height believed in us and our capacity, our efficacy, our greatness.

To be a young person under their grace and spirit created a long-lasting wind beneath my wings. It’s hard to express what I mean and so you have no idea of the honor that you bestow upon me when you give me an award in the name of Ramona Hoage Edelin. Like each of you, I have moments of doubt about my own work but I know this, even if I am flabbergasted that you would choose me, Ramona believed I was worthy.

In this room today, in this audience, are Friendship people. Now you are all Friendship people to me because anybody who puts their life into children is always part of the Friendship family. But there are those who graduated or are in school under the banner of Friendship here today. I have something to say to you. Every day when I go to work; every moment that I am awake (and I think sometimes when I’m sleeping and dreaming), you are on my mind. You are the reason for what we do and as I do this work, it is with the great and deep hope that I am making you proud. It is with the great and deep hope that you know we always believe in you and your capacity, your efficacy, your greatness, your good spirit. To the rest of you in this room, I will say a word – a quick one as I only have a few minutes after all.

So often I hear talk of “the sector, the sector.” What about the sector?  I get it. Institutions, industries, movements… they are important. But what I appreciate most about many of you in this room is you go beyond talk of sectors and you ask, what about the children?

My sincere personal thanks to Chairman Mendelson for being here today. But I thank you even more so for yesterday when during testimony you asked why aren’t more children being served in these kinds of programs at these kinds of schools? Chairman Mendelson, LaJoy Johnson Law, Maya Martin, Ariel Johnson, Donald L. Hense, Superintendent Christina Grant and Interim Superintendent Mitchell, and all of my Friendship colleagues – too many of you in this room to mention so forgive me for not calling your name –  you understand that this work is about children. 

I know we have to collectively ensure a strong sector, but have no doubt it’s about the children. When I look across LEA leaders like me, I know when you go to work your thoughts are about the children. Yes, there are so many things we have to do — real estate and bonds and financing and employment agreements, compliance and etc., etc., etc. But I’ve never known a leader that’s not doing all of that because they don’t want to be in classrooms sitting with teachers, talking to young people, hearing from families. They do all of that other stuff because they know that the work that we do to align the resources, the talent, the structures and the strategies… in the end, that is work to benefit children.

So if you take away one thing from me and these remarks — and yes I have gone longer than two minutes and my apologies to the Alliance team. I am wrapping it up. 

My heart will always be with the children. Certainly there are those who may not agree with what I say or what I do. Please know this, if it comes down to a decision for these children, our children, DC’s children, that’s the decision I am going to make and we can debate about it. Some of you can vote about it. You can be for it or against it, but whether for or against, we will always stand together as long as it is for the children. 

I will always stand with children because I am a child of Friendship founder Donald L. Hense, of civil rights leader Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, of my mother Patricia Weston Rivera and my father Ramon Rivera and I strive to walk in the walk and the light of Dr. Ramona Hoage Edelin. 

Thank you.

Friendship reacts to DC charter board’s decision blocking the network’s takeover of Eagle Academy

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter School Facilities, Charter Schools, DCPS, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

Yesterday, I received the following statement from Friendship PCS regarding the DC Public Charter School Board’s recent vote disallowing the charter’s takeover of Eagle Academy PCS:

“I am saddened for the children, families and staff affected and wish there had been another outcome that prioritized stability and a stronger educational experience. While we are disappointed in the outcome, we recognize there were many factors that the DC PCSB had to weigh. Eagle’s finances, which led to the PCSB citing Eagle for fiscal mismanagement, presented significant challenges. Yet, Friendship remains steadfast in our belief that Eagle’s children and families should not suffer for decisions they did not make,” said CEO Pat Brantley.

“Our commitment to our little Eagles and their families remains stronger than ever. While we were fully prepared to transform Eagle Academy by ensuring both Eagle campuses opened on time fully staffed and fully resourced, we are continuing to do everything we can to ensure Eagle’s children start the new school year strong,” Brantley continued.

“Friendship, along with the greater public education community, has wrapped its arms around, and opened its doors, to Eagle students, families, and staff who face uncertainty. Today, many former Eagles are now students and new team members at Friendship for the 2024-25 school year. That said, we recognize that far too many who were part of the Eagle community are still dealing with the repercussions of an abrupt closure,” Brantley stated.

Here is my original story on the charter board vote:

I have been away for several months studying the charter school movement in California. Upon my return I caught up on the terribly devastating news that due to actions by the DC Public Charter School Board Eagle Academy PCS had closed. The school would still be operating if the board had approved a takeover by Friendship PCS. It is easily the worst decision by the PCSB since its founding 28 years ago in 1996.

Charter supporters in this town have a tremendous problem. I am referring to the four members of the board who turned down the plan. Obviously, they are not school choice supporters. How else do you explain sending children from approximately 353 families, with many of these kids behaviorally and physically disabled, into a panic to find a new school with six days before the start of the new school year? Due to the late date of the move by the board many of these scholars will end up enrolled in the traditional sector. In addition, the building owned by Eagle, the McGogney School, the one with the swimming pool and highly specialized therapy rooms, will almost certainly be turned over to the city. Never would true charter supporters entertain these outcomes for even one second.

There are many reason why the charter board should have voted affirmatively immediately after Friendship made its proposal:

One – Stability for children and families. Friendship was prepared to come in on day one and begin teaching these students. During the two hearings before the board on this subject, Ms. Patricia Brantley, Friendship’s CEO, pointed out that a simulation using the charter board’s new accountability system ASPIRE showed that each of its six existing elementary schools would score at Level 1, the exemplary category. Students that were formally at Eagle would be receiving a stronger academic preparation than they had under the old regime.

Two – Friendship has a proven record of taking over failed charter schools. Friendship created the model of taking over failed schools to provide continuity for students and parents, and to keep these children with a seat in a charter, with the assumption of SouthEast Academy PCS in 2005. The LEA has repeated this procedure with its takeover of the Armstrong Campus and the online institute of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy in 2015, IDEAL Academy in 2019, City Arts and Prep PCS, formally the William E. Doar, Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts of which I was a founding board member and board chair, also in 2019.

Three- The PCSB might have had a hand in Eagle’s fate. In 2022, Eagle Academy filed a charter amendment request to add the fourth and fifth grades to their current offering of Pre-Kindergarten three to third grades. The school argued that the addition of these grades would provide stability for the children and families attending the school. The board turned down this request because it said that Eagle had missed the deadline for requesting the additional grades. However, the inability of Eagle to offer parents a preschool to fifth grade institution provided a powerful incentive for them to look to other facilities for their educational needs. Indeed enrollment at Eagle decreased sharply after the pandemic, falling from 838 to 412 pupils, according to Laura Lumpkin of the Washington Post. Eagle then failed to react sufficiently to its loss of revenue which is what eventually led to its conclusion to relinquish its charter when the Friendship deal was denied. The school did not have the money to continue operating based upon its number of students.

Four – The decision was an affront to Patricia Brantley. This is an individual who exemplifies the Friendship values of integrity, responsibility, confidence, care, commitment, patience, persistence, and respect. In addition to overseeing the education of over 4,700 students in the District of Columbia and adding campuses to the Friendship portfolio as described above, she incorporated the Capital Experience Lab, CapX, into her Blow Pierce Middle School, after the proposed charter was rejected twice by the board. Ms. Brantley also almost single-handedly saved Monument Academy PCS by volunteering to serve on its board after the school had decided to close in the wake of severe discipline problems occurring at the site.

Ms. Brantley is a hero in our community, and to reject her gracious offer to come to the rescue of the families at Eagle was an affront to her stellar achievements.

The four board members who cast their vote against the takeover plan, Lea Crusey, board chair; Shantelle Wright, board treasurer; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, board secretary; and Carisa Stanley Beatty, board member; together with the other trustees and staff, repeatedly referred to the Friendship plan as an asset acquisition. I guess in a technical way that is what it is. But what we are really talking about here is dignity for all the teachers, staff, parents, and students, who would have benefited from becoming part of Friendship.

Share this:

D.C. public school reform ended with the charter board’s failure to allow Eagle Academy’s takeover by Friendship

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter Schools, DCPS, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

I have been away for several months studying the charter school movement in California. Upon my return I caught up on the terribly devastating news that due to actions by the DC Public Charter School Board Eagle Academy PCS had closed. The school would still be operating if the board had approved a takeover by Friendship PCS. It is easily the worst decision by the PCSB since its founding 28 years ago in 1996.

Charter supporters in this town have a tremendous problem. I am referring to the four members of the board who turned down the plan. Obviously, they are not school choice supporters. How else do you explain sending children from approximately 353 families, with many of these kids behaviorally and physically disabled, into a panic to find a new school with six days before the start of the new school year? Due to the late date of the move by the board many of these scholars will end up enrolled in the traditional sector. In addition, the building owned by Eagle, the McGogney School, the one with the swimming pool and highly specialized therapy rooms, will almost certainly be turned over to the city. Never would true charter supporters entertain these outcomes for even one second.

There are many reason why the charter board should have voted affirmatively immediately after Friendship made its proposal:

One – Stability for children and families. Friendship was prepared to come in on day one and begin teaching these students. During the two hearings before the board on this subject, Ms. Patricia Brantley, Friendship’s CEO, pointed out that a simulation using the charter board’s new accountability system ASPIRE showed that each of its six existing elementary schools would score at Level 1, the exemplary category. Students that were formally at Eagle would be receiving a stronger academic preparation than they had under the old regime.

Two – Friendship has a proven record of taking over failed charter schools. Friendship created the model of taking over failed schools to provide continuity for students and parents, and to keep these children with a seat in a charter, with the assumption of SouthEast Academy PCS in 2005. The LEA has repeated this procedure with its takeover of the Armstrong Campus and the online institute of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy in 2015, IDEAL Academy in 2019, City Arts and Prep PCS, formally the William E. Doar, Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts of which I was a founding board member and board chair, also in 2019.

Three- The PCSB might have had a hand in Eagle’s fate. In 2022, Eagle Academy filed a charter amendment request to add the fourth and fifth grades to their current offering of Pre-Kindergarten three to third grades. The school argued that the addition of these grades would provide stability for the children and families attending the school. The board turned down this request because it said that Eagle had missed the deadline for requesting the additional grades. However, the inability of Eagle to offer parents a preschool to fifth grade institution provided a powerful incentive for them to look to other facilities for their educational needs. Indeed enrollment at Eagle decreased sharply after the pandemic, falling from 838 to 412 pupils, according to Laura Lumpkin of the Washington Post. Eagle then failed to react sufficiently to its loss of revenue which is what eventually led to its conclusion to relinquish its charter when the Friendship deal was denied. The school did not have the money to continue operating based upon its number of students.

Four – The decision was an affront to Patricia Brantley. This is an individual who exemplifies the Friendship values of integrity, responsibility, confidence, care, commitment, patience, persistence, and respect. In addition to overseeing the education of over 4,700 students in the District of Columbia and adding campuses to the Friendship portfolio as described above, she incorporated the Capital Experience Lab, CapX, into her Blow Pierce Middle School, after the proposed charter was rejected twice by the board. Ms. Brantley also almost single-handedly saved Monument Academy PCS by volunteering to serve on its board after the school had decided to close in the wake of severe discipline problems occurring at the site.

Ms. Brantley is a hero in our community, and to reject her gracious offer to come to the rescue of the families at Eagle was an affront to her stellar achievements.

The four board members who cast their vote against the takeover plan, Lea Crusey, board chair; Shantelle Wright, board treasurer; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, board secretary; and Carisa Stanley Beatty, board member; together with the other trustees and staff, repeatedly referred to the Friendship plan as an asset acquisition. I guess in a technical way that is what it is. But what we are really talking about here is dignity for all the teachers, staff, parents, and students, who would have benefited from becoming part of Friendship.

Does the D.C. charter school sector need a replacement for the Performance Management Framework. Josh Boots has his doubts

mlerner10 Charter Schools, PMF Leave a comment

The following is written testimony Josh Boots provided to the DC Public Charter School Board regarding the adaptation of its new draft Performance Management Framework called Aspire:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony regarding the new draft Performance Management Framework (PMF). I serve as Executive Director of EmpowerK12, a mission-driven education data nonprofit here in DC, and as a board member at Center City PCS, a network of six PK-8 schools. I provide this testimony solely as a concerned DC citizen with deep insight into charter school operations, what makes schools effective, and DC school accountability systems, including as a member of the original PMF development task force in 2010. The proposed draft PMF for PK-8 schools is largely duplicative of the state’s accountability system, which will generate confusion among our stakeholders and families while also creating an extra compliance burden on charter school staff. I offer 3 recommendations for moving forward at the end.

For the new DC school report card accountability system, Center City’s data manager must validate that OSSE has correctly identified the student universe and appropriately calculated up to 148 metrics per school that make up the overall score. PCSB’s draft PMF will not just duplicate that amount of work; it will complicate and confound the accountability compliance process by using slightly different business rules for the universe of students and student groups included as well as how metric performance is calculated by using different floors and targets. With the two additional school specific measures (I fully support their inclusion as a component of a new PMF) and 8 student groups for each, the grand total number of PMF metrics Center City’s data manager must verify for each school will be 164 metrics.

Let’s say the data manager takes 5 minutes per metric to confirm whether the list of students PCSB included in the calculation is accurate and another 5 minutes to verify the underlying numbers for each student and aggregated metric value are correct. This means they spend 10 minutes per metric for a grand total of 28 hours just to validate the 164 metrics in the proposed PMF for one school; this time estimate for PMF validation assumes each metric’s universe and calculation match perfectly. When metrics differ from expected values, a time multiplier goes into effect for figuring out why numbers do not match, submitting and responding to PCSB tickets, and then re-validating everything again when tickets are closed.

For Center City’s six campuses, the data manager might spend up to four entire work weeks validating PCSB PMF data, in addition to the four weeks required to validate OSSE’s slightly different accountability system metrics. This leaves their staff with substantially less time to support school leaders and teachers with using data to improve.

Meanwhile, DCPS’s data team, lacking this duplicative accountability tool verification requirement, can spend an extra month doing data work that moves the needle forward for their schools and students. It might be more than one extra month of data support compared with the charter sector average because while a minimum of 69 charter LEA data managers are needed to validate PMF and OSSE data, DCPS likely only needs a few data folks to validate half the amount of accountability metrics for all their schools, allowing their team to spend even more time analyzing and coaching educators about student data for improvement purposes.

The proposed PMF does not represent the only source of compliance burden charter schools face. With more regular attendance, discipline, and special education collections, the number of metrics and frequency by which they must be validated has increased nearly every year, often with changes in calculation methodology from year-to-year and limited automation in the process deployed by PCSB to improve its efficiency, validity, and reliability. The percentage of errors in the validation process attributable to PCSB has not decreased over time because PCSB has not invested enough of its budget in a modern data technology platform to make compliance activities more accurate and automatic, reducing the validation time burden placed on schools.

This decision has manifested in a multi-fold increase in charter schools’ time spent on compliance back-and forth activities with the authorizer rather than on improvement efforts in their schools and classrooms. Changes in math and reading growth data suggest this approach may have negatively impacted the entire sector’s performance over time. The charts below show the average median growth percentile for charter schools compared with DCPS in the PARCC/CAPE era. The new PMF will exacerbate the sector’s compliance validation burden and limit schools’ capacity to use data to improve.

Compliance and accountability are important tools for ensuring our students receive the best possible education. We should hold the same high standard for the efficient and effective administration of compliance activities conducted by PCSB staff as we have in our standards for charter school student outcomes. The proposed PMF adds to the inefficiency and compliance burden already inherent in PCSB’s current oversight practice, which will likely impact schools’ ability to deliver what I care about most: giving historically underperforming student groups a life filled with opportunity that an effective education affords.

How the PCSB Board Can Facilitate Improvement

  1. Adopt the state’s new equity-forward accountability system as a significant component of the framework, eliminating a burdensome duplicative compliance activity. Keep the part about mission specific goals as it makes the sector unique and communicates each school’s value beyond math and reading. Find ways to include growth for all students, including K-3 and high schoolers. The policies that rely on the PMF could dictate a minimum average score on the DC report card and percentage of mission specific and K-3/HS growth goals met.
  2. Require PCSB staff to update their data architecture and transparently post the code utilized for every metric calculation and compliance activity through GitHub (or similar interface), so data experts across the sector can collaborate and ensure a strong codebase that reduces the amount of time spent error correcting data in the future.
  3. Invest in new technology, algorithms, and process policies that make compliance activities more efficient and effective, then look for ways to reduce the authorizer fee so that schools have more resources to improve student outcomes.

Teacher testimony details problems at Girls Global Academy Public Charter School

mlerner10 Charter Schools, PCSB Leave a comment

Sandwiched into the voluminous public testimony at January’s monthly meeting of the DC Public Charter School Board were emotional comments by Yolanda Whitted, an engineering instructor at Girls Global Academy PCS. Ms. Whitted is an extremely experienced educator in Washington, D.C., spending over a year, according to her LinkedIn account, at Washington Global PCS; almost four years at District of Columbia International PCS; and now seven months at GGA. 

Ms. Whitted described an extremely toxic environment at the charter in which there are frequent fights between staff and students, leading many to feel “hopeless, helpless, voiceless, and unsafe.” She spoke Monday evening because, she stated, she “is concerned about our charter.”

The testimony contained many other highly negative charges. Ms. Whitted remarked that teachers are disrespected and overburdened, often substituting without compensation for colleagues who have resigned en masse. She revealed that other substitute teachers transition into full-time positions, harming the quality of instruction. She added that the school lacks basic supplies and equipment. Instructors, she remarked, are buying their own resources from their “inadequate salaries.” The teacher described an environment of fear and intimidation leading to student enrollment plummeting. She concluded by claiming that there is no student council or government, and efforts to expand the parent organization to one that includes parents and students was rejected by administration, leading to “a grassroots movement for change.”

GGA opened in 2020 and instructs students in grades nine through twelve. The charter’s most recent annual report for the 2021 to 2022 school year details an enrollment of 155 children in the ninth and tenth grades. Some alarming statistics contained in this document include a 23.2 percent student suspension rate, 26 students withdrawing midyear, and a teacher attrition rate of 40 percent. The school’s approved budget for this school year reveals a negative $610,000 net revenue, with $220,000 of that being comprised of interest and depreciation.

In my experience of observing D.C.’s charter school movement, complaints of one teacher during a public meeting may mean that there is a disgruntled staff member. It could also represent something much deeper, a true problem focused around the education of our kids. Ms. Whitted’s complaints need to be taken seriously and investigated by the DC PCSB.

 

At monthly charter board meeting, public pushes back

mlerner10 Charter Schools, Covid-19, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

Yesterday, I attended perhaps the most exciting policy forum around public education that I have been to in decades. Sitting on the CATO Institute’s Hyack Auditorium stage were five educational entrepreneurs who have created highly innovative microschools. Three of the participants were able to take advantage of the existence of Educational Savings Accounts in the states in which they are located to fund their endeavors. ESA’s are dollars provided by states to parents for educational services for their children outside of those provided by the local neighborhood schools.

There is a new educational choice movement on fire in this country, much of it ignited by the closure of regular classrooms during the pandemic. According to CATO, “In 32 states plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, many families can use school choice programs to select the learning environment that works best for their children.” I pictured Andrew Coulson, the former long-term director of CATO’s Center for Educational Freedom who passed away in 2016 at the age of 48 from a brain tumor, smiling ear to ear from above as he watched the event.

One of the panelists was Jack Johnson Pannell. Mr. Pannell had formed an all-boys charter school in Baltimore focused on helping those living in poverty. A friend introduced him to the universal ESA’s available in Phoenix. He decided to relocate his school across the country, establishing it as a Christian all-boys private school.

It was most likely not a difficult decision. By going the private school route this educator avoids all of the bureaucracy and regulation associated with chartering. In the audience was Shawn Hardnett, founder and executive director of D.C.’s Statesmen College Preparatory Academy for Boys Public Charter School. His eyes lit up as Mr. Pannell spoke, and why shouldn’t this be the case? His school had its five year review by the charter board recently and, for all its excruciatingly difficult work and the right to continue operating, here’s what it received:

“Statesmen PCS will develop and implement an academic improvement plan. At a minimum, the plan must include specific strategies the school will use to improve academic outcomes for all students. The plan must also include a description of how the school will measure its academic progress toward meeting its goals. Statesmen PCS will report on its progress implementing the plan in its annual report every year leading up to its 10-year charter review.”

“Additionally, Statesmen PCS will develop and implement a procurement contract compliance improvement plan. At a minimum, the plan must include strategies the school will use to improve internal procedures for both bidding and submitting procurement contracts. The plan must also include a description of how the school will measure the plan’s success. Statesmen PCS must comply with DC PCSB’s Procurement Contract Submission and Conflict of Interest Policy and Data and Document Submission and Verification Policy. Should DC PCSB recognize noncompliance, it will engage Statesmen PCS’s board about needed improvement or take additional action as appropriate under each policy.”

A shocking alternative to the energy I found at the CATO conference was observing Monday night’s monthly meeting of the DCPCSB. The sessions are held virtually, a reminder of the horrible days of the pandemic. The connection via Zoom made it clunky and awkward to connect sequentially the over 20 people who volunteered to speak as part of the public comment period. Almost all testified passionately against a proposal by the Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy PCS’s plan to relocate its 16th Street, N.W., campus to Takoma Park Baptist Church located on Aspen Street, N.W. Apparently, the school failed to communicate or miscommunicated the move to those living in the area around the Church, including the ANC. The District’s charter movement is almost 30 years old but I found the entire two hour get together to be a replay of those that I first attended in 1999.

So, while listening to the back and forth discussion between members of the board and the school, I thought about the day that ESAs would come to the nation’s capital. Imagine a parent going on My School DC and picking a private school for their child instead of the regular one in their neighborhood. Then in the mail would come a credit card pre-loaded with almost $13,000 in educational dollars to pay for a year’s tuition in one of the 135 private schools that at one time operated as charters.

People are allowed to dream, aren’t they?

Groups sue to stop Catholic charter school from opening. This is a mistake.

mlerner10 Charter Schools Leave a comment

I remember when six Catholic schools in the District of Columbia converted to charter schools to become Center City PCS. At the time there was uniform agreement among education policy makers that these facilities, being public schools, would have to cease religious instruction. I took the opposite view.

We now have a consistent legal precedent at the level of the U.S. Supreme Court of allowing public money to flow to parochial schools, the most recent case being decided last year in Carson v. Makin. The particulars of this decision, as is equally true of the details of the other cases on this issue, are not particularly relevant to my argument as I know full well that the public will just rationalize the rulings as those coming from a conservative dominated bench. So let’s try another line of reasoning.

For a year and a half I worked Holy Cross Hospital, located in Silver Spring, Maryland. Holy Cross is a Catholic Hospital whose mission is, “We, Trinity Health, serve together in the spirit of the Gospel as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within our communities. We carry out this mission in our communities through our commitment to be the most trusted provider of health care services.” It is common to see the cross mounted in the building’s hallways and patient rooms, and many meetings began with a prayer to Jesus Christ.

The hospital accepts Medicare and Medicaid patients whose healthcare is paid for with government funding. During the height of the Covid Pandemic, it received the same federal financial assistance as did hospitals throughout the country. Is any of this revenue unconstitutional because these transfer of taxpayer dollars runs afoul of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which prohibits an establishment of religion? Of course not. In no way does this government funding promote Catholicism as the dominant religion in the United States.

The same is true when it comes to education. Tuition may go to Catholic schools through private school vouchers, charter enrollment, or through education savings accounts, for but there is no correlation of this activity to the role that the Anglican Church played in English society around the period of the American Revolution.

About 30 years ago the private school voucher plan was passed in Milwaukee and the arguments for and against the program were going strong. David Boaz was speaking at the CATO Institute and he explained his support for school choice this way: He said that criticism of government money going to parochial schools as an establishment of religion is the same as saying that people who use food stamps at Safeway are singling out this corporation as the dominate grocery store in this country. This line of thought makes little sense.

The lawsuit challenging the opening of the online St. Isidore Charter School by the Oklahoma City Archdiocese is a wasted effort. In this instance, as in others involving religious educational institutions, the money is being used to support the children.