Norton to Speak at First Graduation of Catholic Schools Converted to Charters Today (6/5/09)

Norton to Speak at First Graduation of Catholic Schools Converted to Charters Today

June 5, 2009

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will speak today to the first graduating class of the six campuses of the Center City Public Charter School at the University of the District of Columbia Auditorium (Building 46) at 4 p.m. Norton, whose bill established the Public Charter Board, has been a strong proponent of the 55 charter schools in the District, which have significantly outperformed the D.C. public schools and also have been a major ingredient in stabilizing the District's population. The quality of education had long been the chief cause of taxpayer flight. At the ceremony Norton, a constitutional lawyer, will thank Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and the Catholic Diocese for turning over the sixth inner city schools to the charter school community and relinquishing their core religious identity to convert them to nonsectarian schools in the best interest of the education of the children. Norton will tell the 127 eighth graders that they are making history as the first graduating class of Center City and will ask them to see President Barack Obama not as a celebrity, but as the eighth grader he once was, who worked hard until he reached his goals.