Yup, the Catholic Archdiocese in Washington, DC can't afford to run its private nonprofit schools so it's making them public schools. The "voluntary" nonprofit Archdiocese, running bunches of private schools it can no longer financially support (and no longer has all those volunteer nuns who teach for free) is going to convert a bunch of its schools to become publicly supported charter schools (see Washington Post).
There are certainly good things to be said for this scheme. The kids will keep their school open; and, in theory there is a certain quality of education that will be retained. Hooray on that count.
But no one, except perhaps the current students and parents, are asking the Diocese to stay in the education business. Not even the Diocese, due to the cost of schools, believes it should be in the education business, unlike once upon a time when the education business was a part of the Diocese's calling/mission and was very much tied to the propagation of faith. Now that the time of eduction as mission has come to an end (at least that's how it looks if it isn't going to put up the money) must the public sector step in? I am just not convinced.