I'm calling to order this uh hearing.

This is a public hearing of the committee of the whole of the Council of the District of Columbia.

I am Phil Mendelson, Chair of the Council and Chair of the Committee as a whole.

Today is Friday, April 24th, 2026.

The time is 9.56 a.m.

and we are in room 500 Council Chambers of the Johnny Wilson building.

This is the third of eight hearings that the Committee of the Whole is having on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 and related legislative documents.

Today we are hearing testimony with regard to the DC Public Charter Schools.

Only hearing from the Executive Director of the Public Charter School Board two days ago, we had a hearing with public witnesses, if I remember correctly, something like 80 people testified with regard to DCPS and public charter schools.

So today's government only.

And folks who wish to testify at that hearing can do so by going to the Council's website, WW.dccouncil.gov, where not only will they be able to look at this and all other hearings that are being conducted by council committees, but will be able to sign up to testify for the May 13th hearing.

And any other hearings.

With that, the uh no, I do want to say a little bit more.

So the mayor transmitted her budget to the council on April 14th.

The Council will have its first vote on June 9th.

And its second vote on the budget on June 23rd.

The second vote on the Budget Support Act will probably happen a couple weeks later.

Dr.

Michelle Walker Davis, you are the Executive Director of the Public Charter School Board.

The floor is yours.

And good morning.

Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members and staff of the Committee of the Whole.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify at today's fiscal year 2027 budget oversight hearing.

I am Dr.

Michelle Walker Davis, Executive Director of the D.C.

Public Charter School Board, and I am joined by Will Henderson, our Chief Operating Officer.

I first want to commend Mayor Bowser for her continued commitment to public education.

It is an achievement to increase education funding in good times.

It is a real triumph to do so when times get tougher.

And given the year D.C.

has had, I am grateful to the mayor for prioritizing a 2.55 percent increase in the uniform per student funding formula.

I wish the mayor's budget had run all school funding through the UPSFF, and I'll come back to that, but I want to be sure to give credit where it is due.

In her final budget, Mayor Bowser delivered for the district's public education institutions.

I use that word deliberately because institutions are precisely what charter schools have become.

Our oldest public charter school turns 30 this year.

And over the past three decades, generations of public charter school students have studied, graduated, and raised families here in the district.

Many of these students now teach at the same schools, where they are inspiring the next generation of engineers, social workers, business owners, and public servants.

Like the sector, the DCPCSB has grown and evolved over the years to meet the needs of the moment.

We are currently in the process of developing our financial oversight policy for one thing.

But there is no better example than our academic accountability system, Aspire, the culmination of years of reviewing, revising, and refining.

Aspire will help guide our oversight and lead to faster, better decision making.

But it won't just help DCPCSB.

Aspire will empower families across the district, giving them access to information about public charter school performance in areas like college and career readiness, proficiency, and growth.

And the most exciting news about ASPIRE is that the results are live right now.

But today's hearing is fundamentally about the mayor's FY27 budget and its impact on our agency and the charter sector at large.

And as much as we are grateful to the mayor for the proposed UPS FF increase, I would be remiss if I did not raise three concerns.

First, the mayor's budget proposes to shift $60 million in DC public schools facility cost to the Department of General Services.

Doing so would bring the total operating funds outside the uniform per student funding formula to $96 million, or roughly $2,000 per student.

Students in DCPS and public charter schools face the same graduation requirements.

They take the same state assessments with the same proficiency expectations.

But under the mayor's proposal, a DCPS school of 350 students would receive 7,000, excuse me, $700,000 more for staff and programming than a public charter school of the same size.

Second, the budget would compound this inequity by proposing almost $556 million for capital improvements across DCPS and roughly $187 million for public charter schools.

And while the budget would increase facilities funding for DCPS, it would freeze the charter school facility allotment for the next four fiscal years, placing additional financial burdens on public charter schools to cover essential facilities cost.

I want to be very clear that I do not oppose additional resources to modernize and improve DCPS schools.

In fact, I support them.

My only question is this.

Why aren't public charter schools offered the same?

Finally, the mayor's budget does not provide any funding for St.

Coletta or lead testing.

Two critical needs that cannot continue to be overlooked.