D.C. Parochial Schools May Become Charters
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is eyeing an apparently novel remedy for the problems of falling enrollments and rising operating deficits for urban parochial schools: seeking to convert a group of eight Catholic campuses into secular charter schools run by an independent operator.
Archdiocesan officials say they greatly regret having to consider such a plan, which would require the approval of District of Columbia charter authorities. But if the only other option is to shut the schools down, they say, turning them into publicly funded but independently run schools may well be preferable. Most of the schools’ students come from low-income non-Catholic families.
“I think we have arrived at something that is definitely a new way of looking at serving the underserved in our poor neighborhoods,” said Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill, the superintendent of schools for the Washington Archdiocese, adding that a 40-member archdiocesan panel had closely studied the situation and various...
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