Testimony of Dr. Michelle J. Walker-Davis, Executive Director DC Public Charter School Board

Testimony of Dr. Michelle J. Walker-Davis, Executive Director

DC Public Charter School Board Hearing on FY26 Budget Oversight 

Committee of the Whole

May 30, 2025

Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify at today’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Oversight Hearing. I’m Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Board.

I want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to Mayor Bowser and this Council for your continued leadership, advocacy, and commitment to public education—even amid a challenging fiscal environment. I especially thank the Mayor for once again proposing an increase to the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF), and this Council for maintaining your strong support for public charter schools, which educate nearly half of all public school students in the District.

This investment is critical. Any reduction in funding significantly impacts not only school programming, but also the students, teachers, and leaders who rely on those resources. Each public charter school functions as its own Local Education Agency—effectively, its own school district—responsible for maintaining safe, welcoming facilities; recruiting and developing quality educators; delivering strong academic programming; and providing vital services ranging from supports for multilingual learners, adult learners, students with disabilities, and students with specialized needs, as well as professional development for the dedicated educators that support our diverse learners.

At the core of this system is the UPSFF—a formula designed to reflect the foundational resources needed to educate each student. It should remain the cornerstone of school funding in the District. This formula promotes equity by providing consistent baseline funding, while also delivering additional resources for students with greater needs—based on factors such as grade level, special education status, and English language learning—because the city recognizes that these students require more support to thrive. It is imperative that all funding—including investments to increase teacher compensation—flows through the UPSFF. While we are grateful for the $30 million dollars in one-time funding for public charter school teacher pay included in the FY26 budget, it stands in stark contrast to the $240 million allocated to DCPS for the same purpose. One-time funds do not offer the long-term sustainability our educators and schools deserve. We risk creating a fragmented, inequitable funding system when we do not fund through the UPSFF.

Funding is a challenge that is especially acute for schools like St. Coletta PCS, which serves nearly 270 students with the most significant needs—those with intellectual disabilities, autism, or multiple disabilities, and requiring intensive special education services. While the Council has commendably found supplemental funding for St. Coletta for the last few years, this approach is neither sustainable nor fair. This budget underfunds St. Coletta by roughly $2.6 million dollars. We urge this body to close this gap this year and move forward to identify a stable funding source to ensure St. Coletta can meet the needs of its students. Stability is critical for these students and their families.

Turning to our work as an authorizer: DC PCSB remains deeply committed to academic excellence. Our academic accountability system, ASPIRE, sets clear, rigorous benchmarks for public charter schools and is designed to drive sustained student achievement across the sector. However, fully implementing ASPIRE demands strong data infrastructure, transparent public reporting, and meaningful support for schools as they strive to meet these ambitious goals. We are encouraged that this budget includes investments in high-impact tutoring in literacy and math, extended school year, and teacher training—critical tools for helping schools meet the expectations outlined in ASPIRE. These investments, paired with consistent academic oversight, are essential to building a transparent and equitable system that ensures all students have access to a quality education.

We also take seriously our responsibility for financial oversight. Each year, we publish Financial Analysis Report (or the FAR) on all public charter LEAs and maintain a public Financial Monitoring List and a listing of Citations of Fiscal Concern, which was recently added to our financial oversight toolkit. When schools exhibit ongoing financial stress, we issue Financial Corrective Action Plans (or FCAPs) to guide them to financial health. We have increased transparency by publishing this information prominently in the Transparency Hub on our website, which is designed to support both the public and the schools’ Board of Trustee members in understanding how schools are doing.

As part of our oversight responsibilities, DC PCSB also evaluates the organizational effectiveness of public charter schools—not just in delivering academics and being good financial stewards, but in supporting the whole child. Schools are more than classrooms; they are community anchors. They feed hungry students, connect families to healthcare, and offer safe, nurturing environments where students feel seen and supported. In light of this, we were disappointed to see a $2.33 million dollar reduction to the School-Based Behavioral Health Program. Our schools consistently report increasing demand for behavioral health supports, and we urge this Council to restore and expand investments in this critical area. At the same time, we are encouraged by proposed increases to student-centered programs that help keep young people safe, supported, and engaged. This includes DC School Connect, Safe Passage, Out of School Time grants, the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (MBSYEP), and the Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute. These programs are essential for student safety, enrichment, and connection to community—and we applaud the commitment to continuing to prioritize them.

As we build a stronger ecosystem of accountability and support, governance is a critical pillar. Quality oversight starts with strong, well-informed leadership on each public charter school’s board of trustees. That’s why we support the proposed legislation to strengthen board governance by requiring mandatory training for trustees. With more than 700 dedicated volunteers serving on public charter school boards, this is a meaningful step toward ensuring strong, informed leadership across the sector. We are actively exploring cost-effective solutions to deliver this training, including the potential use of existing infrastructure, such as OSSE’s Learning Management System, to support content delivery and participation tracking. However, given current budget constraints, we respectfully ask the Council to consider funding this initiative beginning in FY27. This phased approach would allow us to begin implementation using available tools while ensuring long-term viability through future investment.

It’s important to note that DC PCSB operates differently from most District agencies. Our funding comes from an administrative fee paid by each public charter school—not from annual appropriations. As such, any reduction to our budget is effectively a reduction to direct and indirect services to public charter schools. Like the schools we oversee, we must maintain reserves to manage emergencies and non-routine expenses—such as supporting families during school closures or covering costs not addressed in the current budget. These reserves are essential to our ability to respond quickly and responsibly to the needs of the sector.

This year, we respectfully urge the Council to identify a permanent funding solution for lead testing in public charter schools, which is mandated by law. While we appreciated the one-time funding provided last year, we continue to face uncertainty each budget cycle. In years when funding is not available, DC PCSB has had to step in—using our special revenue funding, beyond our annual budget authority—to cover the costs of water testing and filter replacements, even though this is a citywide infrastructure responsibility. Our special revenue fund is a non-lapsing fund by design. It is not an indicator of surplus, rather it is our primary tool for risk management, long-term planning, and emergency response and requires us to be careful fiscal stewards of our resources.

Let’s be clear: this is not the moment to pull back resources from our public charter schools—our students need more, not less. It is time to give them the stable, equitable resources they need to continue delivering for the more than 48,000 students they serve. Through a strong UPSFF, thoughtful investments in teacher compensation, and permanent solutions for lead testing and schools like St. Coletta, we can ensure our public education system is one of opportunity, innovation, and equity for every student.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I’m happy to answer any questions.