Thursday, June 12, 2008

In what can only be described as an Orwellian political move, the D.C. Council wants to get involved in running charter schools ["Attack on Charters," editorial, June 9].

The legislation recently introduced by council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) and council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) strikes at the heart of the reason we have these schools in the first place. Charters were created with the hope that institutions free to develop their own rules would find innovative ways to teach children whom traditional schools have never done a good job educating.

This bill is a slap in the face to the freedom that has led us to have the nation's leading charter movement.

But what depresses me most about the proposed action is that the council did nothing while D.C. public schools turned out generation after generation of socially promoted students. Charters are putting an end to this, and they need to be allowed to continue their work without coercion from the council.

MARK S. LERNER

Chairman

William E. Doar Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts

Washington