Charter school population in D.C. is soaring, and burgeoning programs are desperate for facility space, but the city government is offering to lease or sell 11 of its closed school buildings — including Stevens in the West End and Grimke in Shaw — to developers.
After closing 23 traditional D.C. public schools in early summer, officials began soliciting redevelopment proposals for the facilities. In July, the city released a "request for expressions of interest" for eight of the buildings. Despite a D.C. law requiring the city to give the "right of first refusal" for unused school buildings to charters, the request went out to the whole development community.
In September, officials re-released the request, gearing it specifically toward charters "to maximize the right of first offer ... ." It also added three school buildings to the list. According to Robert Cane, a charter school advocate, 33 charters submitted offers for 10 of the buildings. But the city rejected most of them, he said. It offered only six charter schools the opportunity to compete for three buildings.
Then last month, officials announced that they were again soliciting development proposals for all 11 sites. A spokesperson for the deputy mayor for planning and economic development, who is handling the process, said the charter schools are welcome to resubmit their proposals or team up with developers. "It is not restricted," he said, noting, though, that charter schools will have to prove the financial feasibility of their proposals. "What we really want to do is maximize the value of these assets."
This rationale seems contrived to foster the buildings’ sale. Shouldn’t right of first refusal mean that if a charter school’s offer sufficient, it wins the contract.
Charter schools educate D.C. children just as traditional schools do, and they shouldn’t have to do so in sub-par facilities just because old school buildings look good to developers.