Dive Summary:
- Citing competition from charter school's, Washington D.C.'s public school system will close 20 schools in six of the city's eight wards.
- Public schools in Ward 3, the city's most affluent area, are typically packed with students, but poorer areas of the city are increasingly seeing parents placing their children in free charter schools, and the system chancellor Kaya Henderson says keeping under-enrolled public schools open costs more per student than she's comfortable with.
- A meeting on the closures will be held by the D.C. Council on Thursday, with a series of public meetings beginning on November 27, and Henderson says she doesn't want the city to dispose of the buildings to be closed as demographers believe the influx of 20-somethings into the city in recent years may create an increase in demand for public schools in a few years.
From the article:
Facing a growing challenge from the burgeoning charter school movement, the D.C. Public School system plans to close 20 schools, most of them at the beginning of next academic year. The plan is to close schools in six of the city's eight wards. Interestingly, in D.C.'s most affluent area, Ward 3, city public schools are generally bursting with students. In poorer areas of the city, public school buildings are usually under-utilized, because parents are increasingly placing their children in free charter schools. ...
