A national movement to end the simmering divisions between charter schools and district-run schools is starting in Denver with a push from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Nine school districts from major national cities are convening here today for a conference called by the Gates Foundation to push for a new ethos around equity in charter schools.
The districts, including Denver, New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore and New Orleans, signed onto compacts, pledging to improve relationships between charters and districts and level the playing field.
The foundation is promising up to $100,000 in grants per district to accomplish the goals, with successful districts eligible for multimillion-dollar grants in the coming months.
“This compact marks a really big step forward after so many years of false divisions,” said DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg. “We are all public schools. And our mission, very simply, is to provide high-quality schools and serve all kids.”
Boasberg said Denver was picked for the national conference because of work DPS is doing with charters.
Denver has 30 charter schools — the most of any district in Colorado — that serve approximately 12 percent of students. Those students mirror the demographics of the district’s overall makeup of 73 percent low-income, 75 percent minority and 30 percent English-language learners.
The district pledged in its reform blueprint, the Denver Plan, that all schools will be on a “level playing field of opportunity, access, responsibility and accountability.”
In particular, all schools should have equal access to district facilities and equitable funding. They must be available to all students, regardless of economics, language or disabilities. And they should all be held accountable.
In the past two years, the district has approved two new district-run schools and 12 new charter programs. It also closed or forced changes to six of its lowest-performing charters over the past three years.
DPS also has designated some charter schools as boundary schools, required to take in all students from a neighborhood. And more charters are being asked to enroll children with special needs.
As of last year, only two students with severe special needs were enrolled in charter schools, DPS says.
This year, a center-based program for severe special needs started in Omar D. Blair charter school, but the program mostly segregates those students from the general population.
“When you have schools with center-based programs, how do you work to make sure they are fully inclusive?” asked Boasberg. “I don’t think that is a charter-school or district-school issue. That is an issue of giving schools guidance and support they need to have inclusive center-based programs.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
