Testimony of James Sandman
Testimony of James Sandman
Public Charter School Board James Sandman Confirmation Resolution of 2024
Committee of the Whole
March 29, 2024
Good morning, Chairperson Mendelson and members of the Committee of the Whole. I am James Sandman, and I am grateful for your consideration of my nomination to serve on the Public Charter School Board. I am also grateful to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser for nominating me and honored to have this opportunity to serve the residents of the District.
I have been serving on the Public Charter School Board since July of 2019. I was nominated and confirmed in 2019 for the remainder of a term ending in February 2020. In 2020, I was confirmed for a full, four-year term. I have served as Vice Chair of the Board since 2021. I believe I am a fit candidate for confirmation to a second full term. In addition to almost five years of service on the Public Charter School Board, I have prior experience in the education sector, as a former General Counsel of the District of Columbia Public Schools and as the facilitator for the Cross-Sector Collaboration Task Force (2015-2018). I have broad leadership experience in the private, public, and non-profit sectors that I believe is helpful to the work of the Public Charter School Board.
I have been a resident of the District of Columbia for the past 32 years. I live in Ward 6. I am a lawyer. I practiced with the international, Washington-based firm of Arnold & Porter for 30 years, including ten years as the firm-wide Managing Partner. Seventeen years ago, I decided to take up a new career in public service and public interest work. I left the law firm that had been my professional home for three decades to become General Counsel of the District of Columbia Schools. I served in that position for three years and was proud to work for the District of Columbia government.
From 2011 to 2020, I was President of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the United States’ largest funder of civil legal aid programs for low-income people. LSC, established by an Act of Congress in 1974, supports 131 independent legal aid programs with more than 900 offices serving the entire country. LSC’s budget, which comes entirely from an annual Congressional appropriation, was $440 million in the last year of my service as President. I am now President Emeritus of LSC, an honorary, unpaid position. Since May of 2020, I have been Distinguished Lecturer and Senior Consultant to the Future of the Profession Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, my alma mater, where I teach legal ethics, among other courses. Since 2023, I have also served as Senior Advisor to and Chair of the National Leadership Council of Frontline Justice, a new nonprofit that advocates for trained community members to be authorized to provide limited legal services to people who cannot afford lawyers.
My hobby is being a volunteer. I am currently Chair of the Executive Committee and of the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. I am Vice Chair of the D.C. Access to Justice Commission, by appointment of the Court of Appeals, and a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence. I am a member of the boards of the Whitman-Walker Foundation, the Pro Bono Institute, and Albany Law School, among other organizations. I am a former Chair of the boards of the Meyer Foundation, the Whitman-Walker Clinic, and the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. I volunteer at the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center’s Saturday morning Advice and Referral Clinics in Anacostia and Shaw. I am a past President of the District of Columbia Bar.
I believe I meet the statutory requirements for a member of the Public Charter School Board. In my time on the Board, I have become familiar with evaluation of and accountability in successful schools. Because of my experience as Managing Partner of a significant international law firm; as chief executive officer of a $440 million non-profit organization; as President of the District of Columbia Bar; and as the chair of the board, Audit Committee chair, or member of the board of a number of non-profits, I am familiar with the operation of a financially sound enterprise. From my volunteer experience in the District of Columbia, I am familiar with the economic, social, and economic development needs of our city. From my experience as General Counsel of the D.C. Public Schools, and from my experience as a member of the Public Charter School board, I know about the needs of students, parents, teachers, and administrators.
I have been a diligent member of the Public Charter School Board since my initial appointment in 2019, preparing for, attending, and actively participating in public meetings and meetings of Board committees. I have developed good working relationships with staff and my fellow board members. I have been an active participant in three especially significant Board activities: the hiring of Michelle Walker-Davis as Executive Director of the Board in 2020, a revision of the Board’s required showing of student demand before a new charter school is approved or an existing school is authorized to expand, and a revision of the Board’s academic accountability system for measuring the performance of the District’s charter schools.
If I am confirmed, I will in my next term continue to apply the Board’s requirements for demonstrating student need rigorously in considering every application to open a new charter school or expand an existing one. And once the collaborative process for revising the Board’s academic accountability system is complete, I will work to implement the new system in a manner that evaluates the performance of charter schools rigorously and fairly and promotes the goal of a high-quality education for every student, especially those from communities that have been historically marginalized.
I would be honored to be able to continue to give back to the city that I love as a member of the Public Charter School Board.
Thank you, Chairperson Mendelson, for the opportunity to testify before this committee. I would be happy to respond to questions from you and the members of the committee.