School Closings

Some are worried about No Child Left Behind school closings. With the closings, they believe, students will struggle trying to find new schools and class sizes will increase. However, that's not the case, charter and private schools can pick up the slack, espescially with vouchers for children who have been cheated in a failing school.

A problem many charter schools have, though, is finding space to hold classes. The school from "Our School" had that problem. Well, public school closings help fill that need as well.

"If we could get the building this year, it would be awesome," said Murdock, whose plan is to open the Nia Community Public Charter School in a Baptist church annex that she expects to outgrow in three years. "I would hate to see [the school system] close down facilities and let them sit vacant when charter schools could use them."

For charter school officials, who are marking the 10th anniversary of the launch of their movement with festivities this weekend, the downsizing of the regular school system is a golden opportunity to relieve a longstanding space crunch. The District's pricey real estate market has forced many of the independently run schools to hold classes in less-than-ideal places -- community centers, church basements, warehouses, even spaces above or beneath convenience stores.

Now they are eyeing the six schools that Superintendent Clifford B. Janey wants to close, as well as space in nine other school system facilities that would be available for leasing under his plan. The school board plans a final vote June 28 on the proposal, which would eliminate 1 million square feet of space. The board has promised to shed another 2 million square feet by August 2008.

"This is the best opportunity we've had to solve the facilities problem," said Robert Cane, executive director of the advocacy organization Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), which is sponsoring a gathering in Anacostia Park and open houses at most city charter schools tomorrow to celebrate the anniversary of the law allowing such schools to be established in the District.

There are currently 51 D.C. charter schools, with more than 17,400 students, while the school system's enrollment has dropped from 80,000 to 58,000 over the last decade. Members of the D.C. Council and Congress have pressed the school board to lease the unneeded space to charter schools, which are spending $16 million a year on leases in the commercial real estate market.

Charter school officials have long complained about difficulties they've faced in getting hold of former public school buildings, and the closings plan could increase those tensions. A dispute already has broken out over whether federal law gives charter schools a right of first refusal on the buildings to be vacated this summer.