What effect do charter schools have on school districts as a whole? Do they inspire improvements in regular district schools or merely drain money from the district's budget? A cover story in this week's Education Week by Catherine Gewertz takes a close look at how the charter school drama is playing out in Dayton, Ohio, an economically embattled Rust Belt city where 15 percent of the district's school-age children now attend a dozen charter schools. Besides the students lost to charter schools, the district has also watched them depart via privately-financed school vouchers, declining birthrates, and middle class flight, and this downward enrollment trend has led to cutbacks in the district's administrative, custodial, and support staff. But instead of viewing charter schools as threats or denying that they'd ever amount to much, school district leaders in Dayton acknowledge that the out-migration by students reflects some of the failings of the district's schools and compels them to improve. A newly unified district administration and reform-minded school board are now embarking on a series of initiatives to raise student achievement in Dayton, Gewertz writes. "People are coming together more now and focusing on how to create a viable education system that includes all these various options," says Tom Lasley, the dean of the ed school at the University of Dayton. For more see "Dayton Feels the Heat from Charter Schools," by Catherine Gewertz, Education Week, April 24, 2002.
