D.C. wants experienced charter operators, in a hurry
While I was gone, a significant announcement from the D.C. Charter School Board that slipped through without much notice. The board is proposing a streamlined approval process that would allow experienced charter operators with good track records in other cities to open their doors in the District a full year ahead of the current timetable.
(Astrid Riecken - FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)
The new guidelines, unveiled at the board’s June 18 meeting, would allow seasoned operators to apply by Oct. 1, gain approval by December and open in August 2013. Under current rules, prospective school operators are screened in the first quarter of the year and approved in the spring but take more than a year to actually begin classes. Eligible but inexperienced charter applicants would remain on roughly that timetable.
Officials said the initiative is not designed to put at a disadvantage “mom-and-pop” schools but to improve the overall quality of the charter sector. “D.C. has always benefited from strong homegrown operators,” executive director Scott Pearson said in a statement. With the new policy, “we are broadening our outreach.”
But the change also comes as D.C. officials are working on plans to close underenrolled traditional public schools. The unspoken intent here is to expedite the
