Respect for Charter Schools

Thousands of D.C. families welcome choice. Why doesn't the city government?

ANYONE LOOKING for a symbol of the contempt that D.C. officials show toward charter schools need go no further than 2501 11th St. NW. There sits the shuttered Meyer Elementary School. Three blocks away is a crowded charter school that desperately wants to lease the building. Instead, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration is turning the facility over to the Department of Public Works. The charter school wasn't even allowed to state its case. Does the city resent the popular charter schools? We say: Get over it.

Tension over surplus schools is not new. Charter advocates have long complained that the city doesn't lift a finger to help schools find space. But there's a new intensity to the debate because of the decision this year to close 23 schools. Charter school advocates are angered by a process they say shuts them out of proper consideration; to date, only three of the 23 buildings have been earmarked for charters. Eight other schools are being advertised for expressions of interest, and charters will have a chance to compete. City law gives charters the right of first offer to the surplus buildings, and the advocacy group Friends of Choice in Urban Schools is considering a lawsuit.

Charter schools are not automatically entitled to surplus buildings; sometimes another use makes more sense. But there are obvious advantages to retaining school buildings for education -- not the least being they might have to be used again if enrollment in regular public schools goes up. It's troubling that the city treats the charters almost as an alien force, an entity outside its interests. How else to explain the cumbersome pre-qualification requirements the charters must meet beyond what's required of private or nonprofit interests? In one case, kitchen equipment was yanked out of a building leased to a charter, while kitchens in vacant schools are untouched. City officials couldn't give us any good explanation.

Nor could they explain why it makes more sense to house a parking division at Meyer rather than the more than 500 students who attend Meridian Public Charter School, where there's no gym or outside playground or good cafeteria facilities. Apparently, Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) played some role, telling us there were "questions in my mind" about closing a public school and opening a charter in it. Mr. Graham contends that he didn't know of Meridian's interest; if so, one must wonder about the thoroughness of study that led to the decision.

Some 25,000 students are expected to attend charters this fall. That's roughly half the number of students attending noncharter public city schools. The time is long past for the city to start treating the charters as a partner, not the enemy.