Charter School Vote Map

Here is a map that shows the areas of support and opposition for I-1240 by precinct in King County.

It shows that charter schools are something that people want for others but few want for themselves.

Comments

Anonymous said…
So ... Burgess has Lisa Macfarlane and Steve Sundquist supporting him in NOVEMBER 2012 for an election next July and November

http://www.yeson1240.com/our-supporters/

Macfarlane (DFER, ha ha 'Democrats' For Education Refoem) and Sundquist (beaten by Marty Mclaren for school board) who are public backers of 1240.

Burgess wants to be Mayor of Seattle - a city which overwhelmingly voted against 1240, and, which apparently isn't too impressed with Bill Gate$ & friend$ buying elections.

Burgess who couldn't tell Melissa "Yes" or "No" on a pro charter good old boy pot of gold ballot initiative.

While I personally know people who like fire and brimstone politics, it sure is reasonable to look at the distribution of anti-1240 charter votes in Seattle, and the backers of Burgess, and ask Burgess

WhichSideAreYouOn?
Anonymous said…
I think a MAP of poverty and and percentage of fatherless homes with children needs to accompany this (in fact replace this map.)

Is anyone actually interesting in improving academic performance?

In Math the the SPS has rarely indicated much interest.

Education needs to function a lot more efficiently .. but unfortunately the thrust is to remove all power from teachers.... So Sad,

So family function has a huge impact on public education .... yet that is largely beyond the control of the public schools.

Education is buried in a huge landslide of propaganda.

-- Dan Dempsey
CT said…
Perhaps Bellevue will get all 40 charter schools...
Anonymous said…
Anyone think that just maybe they may work? I am hopeful.

_Long gone
Anonymous said…
Charlie,
I am not trying to be obtuse, but why do you think people/pricints that voted yes to charters "wanted them for someone else?". My read is that people are fed up with being "toyed with" and want the possibility to take their own schools, their own white, affluent public schools, "off the grid" via a conversion charter and leave the school district shinanigans behind. Yes, Bellevue is a high performing district with high performing schools, but seems like some people are more comfortable with more control. Think of it as a 'cherry on top' of a gated community.
-not sure
CT said…
Long gone - try reading the research on charters. The true peer-reviewed studies, not the bogus crap put out by think tanks and the new teacher project.
Charlie Mas said…
While it is possible that people in some affluent communities voted for I-1240 with the plan to take their local school private, there was no serious talk along those lines during the campaign. It has not been my experience that these folks are really good at keeping that sort of a plan secret and it would be hard to campaign for that in secret since campaigns tend to be fairly public efforts.
Kate Martin said…
Great map. Very consistent with Bill Gates' and President Obama's pattern of telling us what's good for our kids while they have their own kids in an entirely other system.
Chris S. said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chris S. said…
Actually this looks pretty much like the McKenna/Inslee map (where red also lost.) Which tells me that the "d" in "DFER" is definitely a little-d. Microscopic, in fact.
"...their own white, affluent public schools,"

Well, I read the Issaquah Press article on 1240 and the people quoted said 'we don't need those here but others do". Same at the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Nope, they believe charters are for other people's children.

I have said this before but the proof is in New Jersey, charters have moved to the tony (and high-performing)suburbs. Guess what? When you have high-performing school districts, they don't like having charters coming in lessening their pot of money. Those suburbanites thought they were just for those poor kids in Newark.

Thank you to the Times for this map.
Steve said…
And this map provides a great argument against starting charters in Seattle Public Schools (or at least, in the areas that clearly don't want them). A clear lack of support for this in certain areas.

Steve
Anonymous said…
-Steve -I agree wholeheartedly. But you know what the Corporate Education Reform spin will be? Seattle ESPECIALLY needs charter schools to help and protect "all those kids" suffering at the hands of unionized teachers who are supported by the status quo-supporting citizenry. You see, the Charter Schools are here to SAVE THE KIDS from their parents, schools and community. Corp Ed Reform knows best!

Anonymous said…
Sorry, that was me above.

Oompah
Charlie Mas said…
Charter school advocates like to prattle on about "choice". Seattle doesn't want charters. That's clear. Anyone who really believes in choice should recognize that Seattle chose no charters.

Bellevue, on the other hand, did choose charters, as did most of the rest of the Eastside, Kent, and south King County. They should go ahead and create lots of them.

That's their choice.

Unfortunately, what we're likely to see will be charter schools trying to form in Seattle, where people chose against them and not in suburban areas where the people chose for them. How does that represent choice? It seems to reflect the opposite of choice, the opposite of self-determination, the opposite of democracy.

If we had choice, then the charter schools would come to the communities that want them, not the communities that don't.
Anonymous said…
Charlie and MW are dead on.

I was raised in the burbs, where people are proud of living near Seattle and want it to have good schools. Ask any suburban Puget Sounder where they live when they get more than 50 miles from home and they'll invariably say "Seattle" first.

But all they read is the Times in Shoreline and South Snohomish County, and in East King County, along with the conservative, business friendly Eastside Journal.

They love the city, but believe it's schools have standards that reward and promote the Silas Potters of the world.

Tell them your kids go to Garfield, and they'll be petrified. They have been so misinformed, for so long, most think we still have mandatory desegregation and busing "in the city."

Northwesterners are a provincial lot folks. We should all own up to that by now and realize how it chokes the flow of accurate information. We love our neighborhood blogs, but our paper of record sucks. And when our burb friends come to visit us, they are always surprised at how nice "our" neighborhood is, unaware that there are about 50 "good" neighborhoods throughout Seattle.

Silas Potter is on page 1, for 5 weeks. Garfield graduated multiple valedictorians and national merit scholars winds up on page 8. Silas Potter gets more ink because he sells more papers. If it bleeds, it leads, as they say in TV news.

Yes, I'm generalizing like mad. But, there you have it in a nutshell.

WSDWG
Anonymous said…
If we had choice, then the charter schools would come to the communities that want them, not the communities that don't.

Charlie: That's been my position for years. If the community wants them, versus gets duped into supporting them, then I'm all for it. I believe in local control and parents having a say in their school, because it should invite and result in greater parent involvement.

But many charters do the opposite. Parents have no rights, no school board to complain to, bureaucratic principals and leadership that brushes them off like Comcast. So people really need to consider these options in great detail, from A to Z, before hopping on the charter bandwagon.
Johnny Calcagno said…
Dang my color blindness! I can't tell the 60+% Accepted from the 60+% Rejected areas. Although I have a pretty good guess....
joanna said…
I am sure there were various reasons for the different voting patterns. In this pattern the areas most likely to be targeted for charters voted to reject. I would think that some of the vote to approve might want to charter their own schools and are actually looking to improve education. However, I guess that many hope to profit through wall street investments, gaining CEO jobs, and are Republican leaning and believe in privatizing as much of the public money as possible. Some also really hate unions. Power and control play a role.
Joanna, reading the hundreds of comments at various Times' editorials/stories on 1240, I think you hit the nail on the head about power and control and unions.

There are people who hate - absolutely hate - unions and think the teachers are terrible because of them (as are the schools).

Naturally, they have no data to back that up but they say it anyway.

Whenever you challenge them on if they like the police union or firefighters union, they go strangely silent. So teachers unions might be the first to go but wait for it and then wait a REAL battle.
seattle citizen said…
Unions are bad. They keep companies and institutions from lowering labor costs. They make them pay for health plans and think about their employees' retirements. They keep them from getting more than eight hours work out of people, make them allow lunch, and make them pay when an employee is home sick, or when their child is sick. They keep companies from arbitrarily firing people. They make companies hire back long-time employees who they laid off, instead of hiring new and cheaper people, instead.
Damn unions.
Anonymous said…
That's some pretty good Colbert there SC!
Rick James said…
1240 is in so deal with you lost
Rick James said…
1240 is in deal with it the no side lost!!!
Charlie Mas said…
We are dealing with it. Soon everyone will have to deal with it.
seattle citizen said…
Yes, Rick, we will certainly be dealing with the problem of 1240. All of us. Especially the students.
Anonymous said…
Rick James said...
1240 is in deal with it the no side lost!!!

.... well maybe NOT

Try reading the WA State Constitution.

Of course the courts often ignore laws and the Constitution depending how ithe desires and nterests of oligarchs may be effected.

-- Dan Dempsey
Anonymous said…
Corrected spellings

Rick James said...
1240 is in deal with it, the "no" side lost!!!

.... well maybe NOT

Try reading the WA State Constitution.

Of course the courts often ignore laws and the Constitution depending how the desires and interests of oligarchs may be effected.

-- Dan Dempsey
Anonymous said…
Don't feed the trolls. WSDWG

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