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Why Charter School Unions Matter Now
Charter schools were founded on the promise of innovation and choice that empowered teachers and gave families access to alternatives to their, oftentimes, failing district schools. Early charter advocates in the 1990s argued that collective bargaining wasn’t necessary because these schools would be mission-driven and free from the bureaucracy they claimed burdened traditional school districts. Teachers, they said, would have more voice and more opportunities to drive innovation than their peers in district schools.
Look at what happened to the original vision from the ’90s. The autonomy promised to teachers got swallowed by boardroom bureaucracy where it functions as a top-down bureaucratic machine that abandons teacher voice and avoids meaningful collaboration. Right now in D.C., our charter teachers are working without contracts, which means they are completely at-will. We’ve talked to educators who went through an entire school year without a single formal evaluation, only to be told in June their pay would be frozen for the next school year.
A clear example of this shift came in 2023, when the DC Council allocated millions of dollars to raise charter school teacher salaries and required schools to adopt and publicly post salary scales. The goal was to create parity with DCPS and transparency for teachers. While many charter schools complied on paper, in practice, we saw school administrators skipping steps—placing a new hire with three years of experience on Step 6 just to get them through the door, while loyal teachers who had been there for five years were stuck on Step 3. That’s not ‘flexibility,’ it’s a slap in the face. What looks like flexibility on the surface undermines fairness, destabilizes pay, and leaves teachers vulnerable if they transfer to another school — their “step” placement might not transfer, which can mean a pay cut despite years of service.
These same schools were created to offer educators more voice and autonomy, yet the reality is that too many have adopted policies that limit input and centralize control. This trend is especially troubling when you consider that these schools are funded with public dollars and entrusted with preparing public school students for their futures.
A posted salary scale doesn’t mean a thing if leadership can just ignore it when it suits them. That’s where unions come in. Collective bargaining ensures that salary scales are not just posted but are applied fairly, that educators are not arbitrarily disciplined or terminated, and that working conditions — from planning time to lunch breaks — are clear and equitable. Unions bring a level of stability and fairness that allows educators to focus on what matters most: teaching and supporting students.
Charter schools were originally envisioned as places where educators could have a stronger voice in decision-making policies affecting both staff and students, but instead, too many charters replicate the very problems they once criticized, only without the guardrails needed to ensure transparency and accountability.
Charter schools in DC are managed by a charter school board and their reporting agency is the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE). Our district school, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has multiple reporting bodies including OSSE, DC Council, Office of the Mayor, State Board of Education (SBOE) and Office of General Counsel (OGC) to name a few. Ensuring a pathway for charters to organize may be the only way to ensure that teachers are engaged in the decision-making process at their schools and to ensure public funding is being used fairly, prioritizing student development and increasing stability in underserved neighborhoods.
This is why organizations like the District of Columbia Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (DC ACTS) were established: to build a strong, democratic process within charter schools that protect educators and amplify their voices in a way that allows them to continue to impact the lives of the children and families in their communities.
Charter school unions not only create an opportunity for educators and related staff to become real stakeholders within a school, they give us the legal teeth to protect our people. DC ACTS is making sure that every individual charter school board of trustees or directors in this city answer to the educators who actually run the classrooms and the families that put children in the seats at our schools.
References
Cooper, T. (n.d.). Teacher’s Network: How to: Develop as a Professional – An action plan for growth
and success. Retrieved from
http://teachersnetwork.org/ntny/nychelp/Professional_Development/growth.htm
Donnelly, M. (2023). Charter Schools. Retrieved from
Preston, C., Goldring, E., Berenda, M., Cannata, M. (2011). School innovation in district context:
Comparing traditional public schools and charter schools. Retrieved from