THANKS, W:

D.C. relies on charter schools as training tool: Reconstitution a threat to many unionized teachers (Deborah Simmons, July 13, 2010, Washington Times)

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is applying that old maxim "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" to her brand of school reform.

Charter schools have long been among the best performers in the city, and, in a move guaranteed to anger teacher unions, the chancellor is turning to them to help her turn around some of the worst.

At the start of the 2009-10 school year, Friendship Public Charter Schools began managing Anacostia High School, and Friends of Bedford partnered with DCPS to run troubled Coolidge and Dunbar high schools.