Valuable Real Estate

Federal Law to Aid Charter Schools in the District of Columbia Draws Flak

District of Columbia officials are screaming foul over a new federal provision that requires their city to offer any surplus school property to charter schools for at least 25 percent less than its appraised value.

The measure was introduced by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., as an amendment to the annual spending bill for Washington’s local government. The bill became law last month. But local leaders are now complaining that they were never told that the amendment was in the works—not by Sen. Landrieu’s office, nor by Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a local charter advocacy group that pushed the initiative.

“Whenever you have a local organization that actively undermines home rule, it is upsetting,’’ said Jim Graham, a Democratic member of the District of Columbia Council, who described himself as an advocate of charter schools. “This is local property, and it was local decisionmaking which has been taken...