You’ve heard the criticisms of charter schools. They take only the most motivated students. They won’t educate disabled kids. They aren’t held to the same standards as district schools.
Yet a landmark compact signed by Denver Public Schools and all of its charter schools charts a course forward that should cast aside those perceptions. It’s a blueprint for cooperation between DPS and its charters that seeks to fully integrate charters into the district’s mission of offering quality choices to all students.
In exchange for pledging to get behind the district mission, the charters got a promise from DPS that they would get appropriate resources to educate children, including the ability to use district buildings and full per-pupil funding.
To be sure, there are a lot of details to work out, but it is clearly the right direction for DPS.
The agreement was recognized Tuesday, along with eight others around the country, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has pledged up to $100,000 in grants per district to accomplish the goals spelled out in the compact. Districts that are particularly successful could be eligible for multimillion-dollar grants in the future.
“This compact marks a really big step forward after so many years of false divisions,” DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said, according to a Denver Post story. “We are all public schools. And our mission, very simply, is to provide high-quality schools and serve all kids.”
The district already can point to examples of the principles embodied in the compact. Last August, two campuses of West Denver Prep, a successful charter, opened under rules that guarantee any student who lives in the schools’ attendance zone a slot at the school, just as they would be given a slot in traditional district neighborhood schools.
For the coming school year, two other powerhouse charters will open with designated attendance areas in the Montbello and Green Valley Ranch. Those charters are KIPP, Knowledge is Power, a college preparatory school, and SOAR, which offers an extended school day and enrichment opportunities.
Also, Omar D. Blair became the first charter school in DPS to open a center-based program for students with severe disabilities.
Charters are public schools, and the more completely they are integrated into the district’s core mission, the better off all students will be. Children and their families will have quality choices, especially in high-need areas. English language learners will be embraced. And charters will get a fair share of resources to educate children.
The compact is an accomplishment that establishes Denver as a national model of how districts and charters can work together to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing educators.
