Donald Hense writes for the Washington Examiner about the response in Washington, D.C., to successful charter schools.
In the near quarter-century since District of Columbia parents were first allowed to choose public charter schools for their children, demand has grown to the extent that nearly half of all the District’s public school students are educated on charter campuses. Thousands more are on wait-lists for charters unable to accommodate them.
Charter schools — taxpayer-funded, tuition-free public schools that are operated independently — have raised the bar in terms of student performance, especially in Washington’s most underserved communities. Finding adequate facilities, however, remains a constant challenge. Unlike traditional public schools, charters must find their own school space. …
… When unused city-owned property is disposed of, the law requires the city to offer these buildings to public charter schools before private developers are allowed to bid for them. Unfortunately, this law is constantly being brushed aside. …
… here is no shortage of unused school property available. For one thing, there had been a long decline in city-run school enrollment before charters arrived. For another, it is a little-known result of school segregation many decades ago that, in many D.C. neighborhoods, two schools were built where one would have sufficed. As a result, there is a surplus of school buildings in the District. But unfortunately, the District’s government is adding to the difficulties of providing adequate school facilities for all public school children. For example, last school year, the District government announced that it was turning five ex-schoolhouses over for non-educational use, including landmark and historic school buildings empty for years or even decades.