With the start of new school year upon us, the education debate is largely revolving around the fate of the District’s charter schools. It’s an appropriate time for reflection and analysis of the city’s 51 publicly-funded charter schools: it has been exactly 10 years since Congress pushed the charter school program on the city, and earlier this summer the Charter School Board stirred up controversy by shutting down two if its schools, Sasha Bruce and the New School for Enterprise and Development, which has led to hundreds of students finding themselves suddenly with few enrollment options for the fall.

The Post has an in-depth look at the state of D.C.’s public charter schools today, and it’s well worth a close read. As the article points out, nearly 25% of D.C. students, around 17,000, have opted into the charter school system since it began, with more currently on waiting lists. That’s a pretty good indication of how little confidence District parents have in D.C. Public Schools. But at the same time, a new study just released shows 4th graders in charter schools are testing below their traditional public school counterparts in reading and math. The controversy over the wisdom and efficacy of the charter school program has prompted D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey to go so far as to call for a moratorium on additional charter school licenses, which led the Post to editorialize against him.