My day began with a nice breakfast at a fancy downtown hotel, talking
to a foundation program officer about a project that he is planning. I
camped out in the lobby to do some work, and then Metro’d to the Cesar
Chavez Charter High School for Public Policy. It seems like fun to go
there. Two hundred kids are tightly packed into improvised classrooms
in a former office building. There’s a sense that they are helping to
create something idiosyncratic and important. Students participate heavily
in planning the service projects that are central to the curriculum, so
their voice matters. At the same time, discipline is strict: if you arrive
one second late, you go straight to detention. As we walked through the
halls, the principal had something specific to say to practically every
kid she met: "We set up SAT classes for you. Oh, you can’t do them
because you’re in the Corcoran art program. OK, we’ll figure out an alternative."
The neighborhood, near U Street, is full of charter schoolsI suspect
because the rent is fairly low and Metro connections are good. It’s a
transitional neighborhood, traditionally African American and working
class, but now with quite a few White yuppies. I was thinking about the
problems and advantages of gentrification when I passed workers restoring
a beautiful row house. Outside the next-door house, an African American
woman stood and shouted at them: "White man already has everything!"
As an illustration, it was too perfect.