–Tomorrow, run to the Senate and House to make clear that DC stands for protecting DC kids and families from harmful federal interference. Recess at the Capitol, sponsored by Free DC and for youth and their families, is tomorrow Friday March 13, from 10 am to 2 pm. Sign up and more information is here.

–Sign on to a letter to the mayor and council demanding that DC opts out of a new federal voucher program to privatize education. Basically, tax credits are being given to those who give money to (any) organization that provides vouchers for K-12 education. In DC, that is $20 million annually, and there is no income limit for the credits nor any way to ensure funds go to any public school. As it is, the private and parochial schools that are the intended beneficiaries of such vouchers are not required to provide special education and other targeted educational services that public schools are required to provide. The letter, courtesy of Defend DC Public Education, explains how this tax scheme works–and why it is damaging for public education in general and DC in particular.

–The DC council is holding a hearing for students only on Thursday March 19, starting at 4 pm, to hear about concerns of DC youth. Sign up is here. 

Catching Up:

–A settlement agreement is apparently underway for former employees of Eagle Academy. While it is unclear how many employees are included in the agreement or where the money is coming from, we never did get a public accounting of the remaining $1 million in public money (as outlined at the December 5, 2024 DC council hearing), so maybe that’s part or all of it. Regardless, the address of Eagle Academy listed in the case materials appears to be an address of Joe Smith, the charter school’s former leader. 

–Two documents recently produced by DGS in response to council 2026 performance oversight questions—one of DC-owned buildings (Q60) and one showing rental income and $0 leases (Q64)—illustrate anew the depth of DGS’s uncaring about former DCPS school buildings. 

For instance, on the tab “total income” on the Q64 spreadsheet, I could not find PR Harris (leased to Ingenuity Prep); Keene (leased to DC Bilingual); or Wilkinson (leased to DC Prep). While that would seem to indicate that those charter schools are not paying any rent for their DC-owned buildings, on the “$0 rent leases” tab of the Q64 spreadsheet, I could not find Keene or Wilkinson, and PR Harris appeared to have $0 rent only for a dumpster and utilities. By contrast, a 2024 FOIA production I received revealed that DC Bilingual had a $0 lease for Keene, and several FOIA productions I got in 2024 and 2025 revealed abatement of rent for PR Harris. 

In line with such abysmal record keeping, DGS also lists KIPP DC leasing for $0 the former Bundy School (at 429 O St NW). This might be news to Safe Shores, which has been located there for, uh, a long while. Also fascinatingly, the closed DCPS school Winston does not appear anywhere on the Q60 spreadsheet–and while Wilkinson appears there, it is not recorded anywhere whether it is leased to a charter school and whether any rent is being paid (even as at least one government body made a big deal about DC Prep leasing it; see here if the preceding link doesn’t work).

Now, lest you think all this is on DGS, remember that in 2024 when made aware that DGS hadn’t collected rents due for DC-owned school buildings leased to charters; charged absurdly low rents for the same; and tracked no credits for modernizations of the same, the DC council . . . didn’t seem to care. (But not to worry—DC has loads of money just lying around . . . oh, wait.)

–Quick: What do Rocketship, Shining Stars, and SEED have in common? All have been reviewed by the charter board in 2026 and all had financial issues related to declining enrollment. While the charter board allowed all of them to continue, it applied charter board staff conditions to SEED; put Shining Stars on probation; and rescinded its November 2014 authorization for a total of 8 campuses (and 5200 students!) for Rocketship (see p. 204ff of the February 2026 charter board meeting transcript). Two other schools with declining enrollment were also reviewed and continued, albeit without conditions (possibly because of no fiscal entanglements): Thurgood Marshall and Washington Leadership Academy (WLA). (Sense a theme here?) While not all charter schools are, uh, gifted like WLA with $10 million when they start, it seems enrollment declines will continue to bedevil DC’s publicly funded schools. (Who knew?!? Oh, wait.)

–And speaking of future DC enrollment crunches: The charter board is set to vote this spring on new policies around mergers, expansions, acquisitions, enrollment ceiling increases, and replications (whew). 

Recall that in fall 2025, the charter board promulgated a policy around charter mergers and acquisitions. But in the wake of public comment outlining its deep flaws, the charter board postponed its expected vote and recast the entire effort as a “reorganization” policy. 

Now, the charter board has promulgated a school expansion policy, which would cover expanding grades and campus replications (and maybe enrollment ceiling increases). There are a number of curiosities in this effort.

For instance, on page 4 of the proposed policy document, a “conservative” growth strategy outlines a set number of students for a period of time. But a footnote says that this is waived for mergers and acquisitions. (Because magic ponies are behind those expansions?) Then there are actually TWO policy documents posted—one without anything about enrollment ceiling increases and one with an enrollment ceiling policy. The proposed enrollment ceiling policy demands that schools get approved for an enrollment ceiling increase before finding a facility and sets a 3-year deadline for charters to fulfill the terms of that approval. 

Such unheard-of limitations on DC charter real estate are probably why the enrollment ceiling policy is being decoupled from the school expansion policy. Remember, Rocketship’s (now-rescinded) enrollment ceiling increase (and potential 8 campuses!) was approved in November 2014 and a new elementary for BASIS was approved in September 2024—while KIPP DC and DC Prep hold more than a dozen acres of undeveloped DC real estate between them. Real estate speculation and investment are literally central to DC charter enterprises.

And as with the proposed mergers and acquisitions (oh, excuse me, reorganization) policy, there is absolute silence about student conditions; family feedback; and teacher input. Both policies (reorg. and school expansion) are expected to be voted on at the board’s May 18 meeting.

–Finally, despite the recent fanfare around the election of new charter board officers, there is still no mention of Shantelle Wright, the former board chair who simply vanished from public view.