D.C. Schools Confront the Expanding Presence of Charters

By Kerry A. White

Washington

In a gleaming, art-adorned building in the heart of the nation's capital, 65 special-needs students learn the three R's through painting, sketching, and sculpture.

Across the city, above a waterfront shopping mall, 60 9th graders absorb the political culture that defines their hometown, using its experts, institutions, and museums. And a few miles north, on an elaborate brick campus that was once a convent, 100 at-risk middle schoolers receive academic coaching and social services.

With the number of charter schools at 19 and growing, the District of Columbia school system has suddenly found itself with one of the highest proportions of students in charter schools of any large system in the country. Some 3,600 of the district's 75,000 students--nearly 5 percent--are in charters this year. And with a charter law that allows 20 new schools into the system each year, the number of charter students could double in...