News Briefs
D.C. Catholic schools to convert to charter status
Dec 6, 2007 4:59 PM
D.C. Catholic schools to convert to charter status
Seeking to keep seven of its schools functioning, the Washington, D.C., Roman Catholic Archdiocese wants to convert the schools into public charters for the 2008-09 school year. The schools will apply to the city to be part of a new “values-based” charter school group. Charter status would also allow the faculty and students to be “grandfathered” in.
Despite investments of more than $60 million since 1997, the schools, which now serve 1,100 children, have been plagued by declining enrollment and huge deficits, the archdiocese said. Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill, the superintendent of Catholic schools, said it became increasingly clear that the parishes could no longer subsidize students’ educations.
“Our parishes simply do not have the income that they had in the past,” she said. “It cost $7,500 to educate one child in a consortium school. The tuition is $4,500. That difference has to be made up and it’s usually made up by the parishes.”
An independent charter operator to be named shortly will complete the conversion application process and run the schools as “value-based,” but nondenominational, according to the archdiocese.
WTOP, Nov. 5
9 News Now, Nov. 6
