As The Current reports in its Jan. 21 editorial "Take it case by case," Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells introduced a bill that would rewrite D.C. law to allow the District's public charter schools — publicly funded and independently run — to become selective. His bill would allow District public charter schools to give admission preference to students who live nearby. That might sound like a good idea — everyone wants public schools to have strong community ties — but Wells' proposal would hurt the District communities that benefit the most from public charter schools.
Right now, when a charter school has more student applicants than places — which happens often as there are thousands of children on waiting lists trying to get in — it must hold a public lottery. This requirement is important. It means that D.C.'s public charter schools cannot select their students, as some city-run schools do, by screening out those who don't seem academically promising or who live in communities under- served by traditional public schools, as do so many children who live in Southeast and Northeast D.C.
In contrast to D.C.'s public charter schools, traditional D.C. public schools that are nonselective must enroll students from inside their city-allocated boundary before accepting children from farther afield. But this has not created a strong system of neighborhood schools. Six in 10 students in city- run schools live outside their schools' boundaries. Only in D.C.'s wealthiest ward do a majority of students who live in the ward attend city-run schools there. In wards 5 through 8, less than one- third of resident students attend city-run secondary schools in their ward.
Southeast and Northeast D.C. parents increasingly choose charter schools over the District-run alter- natives for unsurprising reasons. For example, economically disadvantaged secondary school students in D.C.'s public charter schools are twice as likely as their peers in D.C. public schools to score at grade level or above. D.C.'s charter secondary schools also have half the rate of absenteeism and much higher graduation rates than District-run public schools. D.C.'s charters have created stronger school communities by strengthening bonds among students, parents and teachers. Even though they don't give preference to children who live nearby, charter schools are great neighbors: invested in their communities and often revitalizing the neighborhoods they call home. Charters also have helped to break down barriers among the city's many diverse communities. Children from D.C.'s most vulnerable communities need charters to remain nonselective so they can access opportunities that otherwise would be unavailable.
Robert Cane
Executive Director
Friends of Choice in Urban Schools