D.C. Has Say in School Plan
Rhee May Propose Charter Operators as Managers

By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 15, 2007

State Superintendent of Education Deborah A. Gist told members of the D.C. State Board of Education yesterday that she has authority over Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's plans to turn around low-performing schools, which Rhee said could include a proposal to bring in charter operators to manage the schools.

"The state does approve the plan," Gist told board members at their monthly meeting, at which they discussed schools that are in a "restructuring" phase because they failed to meet testing benchmarks for five years.

Gist made clear she would not micromanage the process. "I think that it's . . . important for the state not to be overly prescriptive over how the [local school system] chooses to tackle the challenges they have," she said.

Rhee told a group of parents and teachers Monday that some D.C. schools could be run by three nonprofit groups: St. Hope, a charter operator in Sacramento; Green Dot, which operates 12 charter schools in the Los Angeles area; and Mastery Charter Schools of Philadelphia. She is considering the operators in response to a provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that requires districts to use education managers or one of four other options to shake up schools that have failed to meet academic targets for five consecutive years.

At least 26 elementary, middle and high schools qualify for the restructuring phase, and others could join them next year because of persistently low test scores.

Kimberly Statham, deputy state superintendent for teaching and learning, told the board that the D.C. state superintendent's office is awaiting a plan from Rhee outlining aggressive solutions for improving achievement in the 49,600-student school system.

"We want to make sure we stop the bleeding so that as a district and a community we can turn the tide," Statham said.

News of how Rhee might proceed with academic reforms was still seeping in yesterday. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said he was unfamiliar with Rhee's plans and wanted to know how they would affect "the governance direction of the schools."

Gray said he was impressed with St. Hope, where Rhee used to be a board member, based on council testimony this year from its chief executive, Kevin Johnson. But Gray said he wondered about a potential conflict of interest given Rhee's personal connection to St. Hope.

At noon Saturday, Rhee and Johnson plan to meet with parents and students from Eastern Senior High School to discuss the St. Hope program. The meeting at the school was at the request of Eastern's alumni association, Rhee spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said. Eastern has failed to meet academic benchmarks for several years, but "it is not a restructuring meeting," Hobson said.

George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers' Union, said he received telephone calls from several teachers who were concerned about the charter operator option.

"We're definitely opposed to turning our public schools into charter schools," Parker said.

The teachers' contract has expired. Parker said restructuring would be part of the union negotiations, which formally begin after Thanksgiving.

"Whichever [restructuring option] the chancellor implements, it impacts our teachers greatly," Parker said. "It's important that the teachers' voices are heard loud and clear through their union."

This is not the first time D.C. school officials have considered private management of public schools. In 1993, then-Superintendent Franklin L. Smith proposed to put the for-profit Education Alternatives in charge of 15 failing D.C. schools. But the Board of Education opposed the proposal, amid charges of elitism and racism. Smith was forced to abandon the plan four months later in 1994.

Staff writers V. Dion Haynes and Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.