Shortage of qualified leaders imperils charter movement
WASHINGTON, D.C.—One Sunday in October 2009, the principal of Potomac Lighthouse Public Charter Schoolin Northeast Washington called the school’s board to tell them she was quitting. The next day, school officials said, she didn’t come to work.
It was already a month into the school year and Lighthouse Academies, a national charter network in five states and the District of Columbia, faced a slim, picked-over field of candidates to replace her.
A national search team immediately placed advertisements in local newspapers and on charter-organization job boards but received just 15 applications. Of those who applied, only five had the qualifications school officials
