Ariel Johnson
Nearly half of Washington DC’s public school students attend charter schools, and for years they’ve been funded as though they were worth less. Ariel Johnson leads the organization working to change that — in Council hearings, in budget negotiations, and in the daily work of helping 132 schools operate well.
Ariel Johnson is the Executive Director of the DC Charter School Alliance, the organization that speaks for every public charter school in the District — 132 schools run by 66 nonprofits, serving nearly half of DC’s public school students from age three through adulthood.
She came to the work by an unusual route. A former teacher who became a litigator for the Chicago Board of Education, Johnson spent more than a decade as Illinois’s lead statewide charter advocate before moving to Washington in 2021. She was the first in her family to earn a four-year degree, and she talks about education the way people do when they’ve watched it change a family’s trajectory firsthand.
Funding Equity
DC funds its public schools through one formula, written so a dollar follows a student to whatever public school they attend. Money keeps moving outside it. Going into FY27, charter students faced a roughly $2,000 per-pupil gap — for a school of 400, about $800,000 a year.
The Alliance organized the response: more than 320 testimonies before the DC Council, nearly 20,000 advocacy emails, and roughly 400 advocates filling the Council Chamber. The first budget vote raised the formula increase from 2.55% to 3.8%, closing about 30% of the gap.
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$15.7 million in additional formula funding generated by the Council’s first FY27 vote
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320+ testimonies and nearly 20,000 advocacy emails from charter families, educators, and school leaders
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$42.3 million in facilities allotment increases secured for FY29–FY30
Member Services
A new law lands and someone has to translate it. A single-site school with no compliance department needs to navigate a process a large network already solved last year.
The Alliance builds the resources, answers the calls, and convenes leaders — summits twice a year, monthly meetings, ad hoc when something breaks.
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132 schools across 66 nonprofit organizations supported as a single sector
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45% of charter students are designated at risk of academic failure; nine in ten are Black or Brown
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In Wards 5, 7, and 8, a majority of public school students attend charter schools