Does Washington Post Letter Sound Familiar?

Reluctance to lease closed and empty school buildings to charter schools? Seems like it's more than a CCSD problem, according to this letter to the editor of the Washington Post:

Use the Empty School Buildings

Saturday, August 9, 2008; A14

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.

ROBERT HOLLAND

Senior Fellow for Education Policy

The Heartland Institute

Chicago