Comment & Debate
Robert Holland, Senior Fellow at the Heartland Institute. “Use the empty school buildings”. Washington Post. August 9, 2008 – “Across the nation, charter school operators report that finding adequate space is their single biggest challenge. Fearing competition, officialdom often hoards surplus property that could house these independently managed public schools. […] One might think that things would be different in the District, where charter schools have been a lifeline for families more than they have been just about anywhere else in the United States [“Respect for Charter Schools,” editorial, Aug. 4]. Long a model of education failure, Washington has a chance to be an exemplar of urban education reform, largely because of its charter schools, which now serve almost one-third of the city’s schoolchildren. Yet D.C. officials are being super-stingy about letting charter operators lease the city’s surplus school buildings. […] Washington’s families deserve better. School stewardship should be about what’s best for children, not how best to conduct turf wars.”