Response to Recent Budget Article

By Scott Pearson

In his April 24 article, “DC Charter Board has its own revenue equity problem”, Mark Lerner made the incorrect claim that the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) is “having its own problems balancing its books”. In reality, the budget PCSB presented to Council at the April 22 FY16 Budget Oversight Hearing represents a conservative budget that will allow PCSB to continue to fully meet its obligation to conduct rigorous oversight over public charter schools in DC, while making up less than 1 percent of total education spending in the city. In fact, the PCSB FY16 Budget includes a contingency as well as a surplus that will be a contribution to reserves.

The article also suggests that PCSB should be given access to District services, such as legal services, in an effort to attain funding equity with DCPS. However, this misconstrues the function of the two agencies, and is not a option that PCSB is interested in pursuing at this time. PCSB does not serve a “central office” function for schools as DCPS does, but instead oversees 61 separate and independent non-profit organizations that operate charter schools. PCSB also values its status as an independent government agency that can make decisions in the best interest of students, outside of politics and bureaucracy.

Scott Pearson is the Executive Director of PCSB.

Read more