If it seems hard to tell which D.C. agency oversees which public charter school, it’s even harder to figure out who oversees the overseers. There are no formal mechanisms in place for monitoring the performance of the D.C. Charter School Board or the committee of the D.C. Board of Education responsible for charter schools, government sources say.

"That’s a very good question," said Abdusalam Omer, D.C.’s deputy chief financial officer, when asked who oversees the two bodies authorized to grant charters. "There is no provision in the law for them to report to the chief financial officer or to the control board."

City Councilman Kevin P. Chavous, D-Ward 7, said he would like to see that situation change. He said he plans to introduce legislation to create a D.C. office of education to oversee all aspects of education in the District, including charter schools. The chartering authorities would be responsible to the "state" office, Chavous said.

Control board member Constance Newman, who oversees education, agreed that the current system is "awkward," with the school superintendent responsible for overseeing traditional public schools and their direct competition — charter schools.

The elected D.C. Board of Education oversees only seven of the District of Columbia’s 18 public charter schools. The rest are under the purview of the D.C. Public Charter School Board. Together, the two bodies oversee an alternative education system that currently enrolls about 4,000 students and costs taxpayers $27 million a year.

Nelson Smith, executive director of the charter school board, said the board is subject to "the usual oversight" by D.C. City Council and the chief financial officer. For example, members of the charter school board testified Dec. 17 at the city council education committee’s oversight hearing on charter schools. Members of the elected school board’s charter school committee also testified.

It may seem redundant to have two agencies doing the same thing. But some charter school advocates say more than one charter school authority is the whole point.

"The whole purpose of having a second board is an opportunity to not be affiliated with the traditional schools," Smith said. "It’s about providing alternatives."

Smith previously worked as director of policy and planning for the Emergency Transitional Education Board of Trustees, at the U.S. Department of Education, and as an aide to Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wis., on issues affecting D.C. schools.

The 1996 D.C. School Reform Act gave the elected school board the authority to charter schools and also created a new separate board whose sole purpose was to do the same thing. Prospective charter schools can apply to either board, but not both in the same year.

Having a second board in addition to the established elected school board is necessary because "historically, boards of education tend to not be amenable to creating something in competition with the schools they run," said charter school board Chairman Josephine Baker, a retired D.C. public school teacher.

But members of the elected school board say they are quite capable of giving the charter schools under their purview the independence that distinguishes them from traditional public schools.

"We don’t hold their hands; they are autonomous," said Tonya Kinlow, chairman of the charter school subcommittee of the elected school board. "We give guidance without being overbearing. They do have that independence that is part of the whole charter school framework."

Chavous, who chairs city council’s education committee, said he would like to eliminate one of the chartering authorities.

"It doesn’t make practical sense to have two," he said. "We need to have the consistency that comes with a single chartering entity. I think it’s a little awkward for the school board to have oversight of charter schools. There are some potential conflict issues."

Charter schools operate with public funds but also can apply for private grants and form partnerships with corporations and other institutions. Unlike traditional public schools, each charter school establishes its own curriculum and selects its own textbooks. Many charter schools provide specialized programs such as arts or vocational training. Charter school students take the same academic standardized tests as traditional public school students, including the Stanford 9 exam.

All charter schools receive local funds calculated on a per-pupil basis — about $5,500 per student for fiscal 1999, with adjustments for special education, preschool and other special programs.

According to Deputy CFO Omer, public funds for charter schools are supposed to come from the general budget for D.C. Public Schools on a per-pupil basis, in effect financially "penalizing" the city’s traditional public schools for every student who transfers to a charter school. But that didn’t happen this year, Omer said. Students in charter schools were included in the count that sets the funding for traditional schools, and then counted again for the appropriation for individual charter schools. The city, in effect, "paid for charter school students twice," Omer said. Omer said he doubts that spending pattern can continue much longer.

Other city officials said Omer’s analysis was incorrect and that children enrolled at charter schools were not counted in the appropriation for traditional schools.

The greatest difference between the two chartering authorities may be the ways in which they are perceived. As a subcommittee of the D.C. Board of Education, Kinlow’s committee is tied to an established local government entity, while the charter school board is a recent creation without direct ties to existing agencies. Members of the school board subcommittee are paid, elected officials while charter board members are unpaid appointees of the mayor. Charter school oversight is just one of the many responsibilities of the elected board, while it is the only function of the appointed board.

Congressional legislation actually allows city council to create a third board with authority to charter schools, but council members indicated they don’t plan to pursue that option.

The six members of the D.C. Public Charter School Board were appointed by Mayor Marion Barry in consultation with the city council and chosen from a list drawn up by the U.S. Secretary of Education. A seventh position, currently vacant, will be filled next year by Mayor-elect Anthony Williams, Smith said.

D.C. City Council set the board’s budget at $480,000 for fiscal 1999, up 20 percent from the previous year. Most of that money was spent to pay consultants and to provide stipends to education experts and community leaders who spent time evaluating charter school applications, Smith said. Three full-time staff members will be hired next year, bringing the total number of staff to four, he said. The charter school board offices are located at 1717 K St. NW. The board meets on open session at least monthly, Smith said.

Baker, the board chairman, is a retired D.C. public school teacher and professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Other members of the charter school board are: Hope M. Hill, a psychology professor at Howard University; Joseph Horning, president of Horning Brothers, a D.C. real estate development firm; Thomas Loughlin, a finance executive with KPMG Peat Marwick consultants; Beatriz Otero, founder and director of Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center; and James Walker, managing director of Urban Technologies, a D.C. information technology and telecommunications firm. All board members are D.C. residents, Smith said.

Last year, the charter school board granted 10 charters from among 26 applications. This year it granted three provisionally out of 13 applications.

Successful applicants receive a 15-year charter, which includes a "high stakes review" every five years, an annual performance review, a required annual report and audit, and monthly financial reports, Smith said.

Schools granted charters by the D.C. Public Charter School Board:

• SEED, 800 3rd St. NE

• Washington Math Science Technology, 401 M St. SW

• School for Arts in Learning, 1100 16th St. NW

• Cesar Chavez, 401 M St. SW

• Maya Angelou, 2100 13th St. NW

• Edison-Friendship, 2959 Carlton Ave. NE and 1345 Potomac Ave. SE

• Rosario International, 3101 16th St. NW and Hyatt Place and Park Road NW

• Associates for Renewal in Education, 45 P St. NW

• Hospitality (site to be determined)

• Robert Louis Johnson Arts and Technology, 807 Tuckerman St. NW

All except the Hospitality, Associates for Renewal in Education, and Robert Louis Johnson Arts and Technology schools currently have students enrolled. These three schools are scheduled to open in 1999.

Members of the elected school board’s charter school subcommittee include Kinlow (at-large), a lobbyist for Kaiser Permanente Health Plans; Robert Childs (at-large), pastor of Berean Baptist Church and an adjunct professor at Howard Univer-sity’s divinity school; Ann Wilcox (Ward 2) an attorney and former member of the D.C. Commission for Women under the Kelly administration; Benjamin Bonham (Ward 6), an accountant and former teacher; and Sandra Butler-Truesdale (Ward 4), a former employee of C&P Telephone Co. and associate pastor of Rock Creek Baptist Church. Wilcox and Butler-Truesdale will step down when their terms end next month. The committee will likely be reconstituted when the president of the board makes new committee assignments in January.

The charter school subcommittee has a budget of $218,000 and one full-time staff member. The discrepancy in funding between the two agencies stems from the fact that Congress set the funding level for the public charter school board in the D.C. budget, but the charter school committee of the school board was expected to carve its budget out of the existing school board budget, Kinlow said.

"There was a congressional appropriation established for the charter school board but none for the school board’s charter school functions," she said. "They gave us new work with no new money."

Control board member Newman pointed out that the chartering authority of the elected school board does not pay separate rent and other overhead costs borne by the charter school board.

The elected school board granted charters to three schools in 1996 and 10 schools that applied last year. This year it plans to grant charters to five of 12 applicants, Kinlow said. The board of education revoked the charter of Marcus Garvey Public Charter School earlier this year after questions arose about the school’s finances.

Schools granted charters by the D.C. Board of Education and currently operating:

• Village Learning Center, 4017 Minnesota Ave. NE

• World, 1375 Missouri Ave. NW

• Community Academy, 1300 Allison St. NW

• Young Technocrats Math and Science, 1st and T streets NE

• Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom, 1525 Newton St. NW

• TechWorld, 501 Eye St. SW

• Integrated Design Electronics Academy, 704 26th St. NE

• Richard Milburn Alternative, North Dakota and Kansas avenues NW

• Children’s Studio, 1301 V St. NW

• Options, 800 Third St. NE

• Next Step, 1419 Columbia Road NW

Hyde Leadership Public Charter School also has been granted a charter but is currently negotiating to lease the former McKinley Senior High School and plans to open for the 1999-2000 school year.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator