Cara Sklar is the director of research for the Briya Public Charter School in the Northeast section of Washington, D.C., whose beautiful, new energy-efficient facility was built on the site of a traditional public school that looked like a concrete fortress. With pride, Sklar explains that the goal of the school is “ending the intergenerational cycle of poverty.”
That goal could seem naïve. In D.C., “ending the intergenerational cycle of poverty” has frustrated the best efforts of 40+ years of Black political control and billions spent on education and social services. It’s extremely difficult for someone without a high school diploma to enter a career that can support a family. For an unskilled person from a dangerous environment who can’t speak standard English or has a small child, it’s almost impossible.
However, due to a unique feature in the 1995 Charter School Law that a Republican-controlled Congress enacted when the District was bankrupt, Briya is one of nine D.C. adult charter schools with the resources and flexibility to help thousands of poor residents achieve this elusive goal. Proponents claim that charters will reform public education by offering parental choice, freeing children trapped in failing schools and giving traditional public schools the incentive to improve or else starve. Opponents, however, view charters as a conservative conspiracy to divert public funds to for-profit entities and undermine teachers’ unions.
Nevertheless, D.C.’s liberal government had its own reasons for embracing charters, says Connie Spinner, a founder and executive director of the Community College Preparatory Academy charter school (CCPrep).
“Many insiders believed the City Council really wanted charters as an attempt to keep the middle class in the city, or to recognize the growing political clout of the immigrant and Hispanic communities in Northwest,” she says.
In almost all jurisdictions with charters, the schools receive approximately the same per-pupil funding as traditional public schools, plus additional funds to cover the cost of renting or buying and maintaining their facilities. More significantly, D.C.’s charter law was the first in the nation to apply this formula to adult students.
Today, D.C.’s per pupil funding is approximately $8,000, with an additional $3,000 or so for capital expenses, all of which is radically changing adult education.
