D.C. charter schools up by 1

“We are 100 percent supportive that we close the bad charter schools,” said Chad Miller, senior director of federal policy at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “It’s always a problem when a school closes, but is that a justification to leave a school open that isn’t performing?”

Many Republicans in Congress see the “marriage between business and education[“] as the beauty of charter schools. Some Democrats see charters as unnecessary burdens which divert money from struggling traditional schools.

Many states have either passed or are debating voucher programs, which take much of the money a traditional public school would spend on a student and return it to the family. But sending children to a charter school almost always means parents must pick up some of the tab.

But Rep. Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Democrat, said that system gives affluent families the charter option while leaving public schools holding the bag.

“What is being left in public schools are public school teachers dealing with the rest,” often minority students struggling to learn English or children with disabilities or other special needs, Mr. Payne said at the House Education and the Workforce early childhood, elementary and secondary education subcommittee hearing.

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