The decision this month by the Montgomery County Board of Education upholding Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast's recommendation to reject our public charter school application was an unwelcome déjà vu.
Nine years ago, a Post news story headlined "Weast Advises Board to Reject Charter School" [Sept. 7, 2001] reported that Weast called for the rejection of the Jaime Escalante Public Charter School "because the proposed program is not unique."
...Indeed, Weast stated during the board's discussion that already, "choice is . . . in abundant supply in Montgomery County" because of the 150 private schools here -- but private schools are not a viable choice for many families, and MCPS's 200 choice programs are oversubscribed and often are not universally available...
...We were disappointed to realize that MCPS would not take the entire 120 days to complete the review. Nor did the process adhere to the structure described in the school system's own regulation. Apart from a 30-minute question-and-answer session with the review panel, we were not offered any feedback during the application process...
Choice Can Increase Racial Segregation
School choice also has the potential to further the re-segregation of public schools. For example, Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., created magnet schools as part of its school desegregation efforts in the late 1970s. Researchers found that many parents choose magnet schools on the basis of racial composition and cultural similarity. White parents tend to choose schools with higher white enrollment, while black parents select schools with higher black enrollment. Only by using their authority to deny transfer requests have school officials kept the choice process from increasing segregation.
