Charter Update - I Heart the Governor
Here's the latest from The Olympian story today.
From the Governor (who is vastly irritated with all sides the longer this takes)
Never mind its contents: Gov. Chris Gregoire teed off on a Senate Republican budget plan backed by a coalition including three Democrats today, mainly because of the secret process that produced it. The Democrat told reporters it came as a surprise to parties that she has tried to bring together this week for inclusive, “five-corner” budget talks. And she said, the plan includes a charter-schools proposal she will automatically veto.
The governor does have some leverage. She says she won’t sign bills that lawmakers want if they don’t get on the stick and produce a budget that can be supported by 50 House members, 25 Senate members and one signature – hers.
She got me a little worried when I read this:
Asked if she would actually veto bills, Gregoire said: “I gave them a message today. My message is this: I’m not signing your bills. If you keep not making progress I won’t sign your bills.’’
That made it sound like she might sign bills if real progress is made on the budget but then:
Gregoire called the charter schools bill “extraneous” and a “waste of time.” “Get over charter schools,’’ she said, promising a veto.
Friday I'm in love.
From Senator Tom:
The Senate Republican plan includes several reforms – including a call for a limited experiment with charter schools. Sen. Tom said the charter-schools proposal is more limited this time. He said evidence shows charter school efforts actually work if they are done in focused, limited ways like he is proposing for just 10 failing schools.
He may be right on that point in a few cases but sadly, that's not his bill.
I called the Senator's office seeking clarity on the changes. The only change in the bill that they knew of was that it would be just 10 schools. The original bill was 10 schools a year. Are we trying a one-time experiment with ten schools? Even is that were his intent, that's not his bill.
Also, the bill would have to be re-written if it were to serve "failing" schools because (1) "failing" is not the language used in the bill and (2) the bill is not written in such a way that ONLY low-performing or "failing" schools could have charters. It just isn't.
So I'm not really believing the Senator and since his office has nothing else to offer, I don't think there is a real change to this flawed bill.
Write the bill you keep talking about, Senator.
Do NOT stop calling and writing the Governor and as many legislators as possible. Here's a link to legislators' e-mail addresses. Thank you to SPSLeaks.
Leg. Emails Excel
Leg. Emails Word
From Someone said:
Unfortunately - scrib is down for maintainence right now - but when it's up - there is a button that says "download" in upper right corner of screen - click that, save Julian's file to your computer.
From the Governor (who is vastly irritated with all sides the longer this takes)
Never mind its contents: Gov. Chris Gregoire teed off on a Senate Republican budget plan backed by a coalition including three Democrats today, mainly because of the secret process that produced it. The Democrat told reporters it came as a surprise to parties that she has tried to bring together this week for inclusive, “five-corner” budget talks. And she said, the plan includes a charter-schools proposal she will automatically veto.
The governor does have some leverage. She says she won’t sign bills that lawmakers want if they don’t get on the stick and produce a budget that can be supported by 50 House members, 25 Senate members and one signature – hers.
She got me a little worried when I read this:
Asked if she would actually veto bills, Gregoire said: “I gave them a message today. My message is this: I’m not signing your bills. If you keep not making progress I won’t sign your bills.’’
That made it sound like she might sign bills if real progress is made on the budget but then:
Gregoire called the charter schools bill “extraneous” and a “waste of time.” “Get over charter schools,’’ she said, promising a veto.
Friday I'm in love.
From Senator Tom:
The Senate Republican plan includes several reforms – including a call for a limited experiment with charter schools. Sen. Tom said the charter-schools proposal is more limited this time. He said evidence shows charter school efforts actually work if they are done in focused, limited ways like he is proposing for just 10 failing schools.
He may be right on that point in a few cases but sadly, that's not his bill.
I called the Senator's office seeking clarity on the changes. The only change in the bill that they knew of was that it would be just 10 schools. The original bill was 10 schools a year. Are we trying a one-time experiment with ten schools? Even is that were his intent, that's not his bill.
Also, the bill would have to be re-written if it were to serve "failing" schools because (1) "failing" is not the language used in the bill and (2) the bill is not written in such a way that ONLY low-performing or "failing" schools could have charters. It just isn't.
So I'm not really believing the Senator and since his office has nothing else to offer, I don't think there is a real change to this flawed bill.
Write the bill you keep talking about, Senator.
Do NOT stop calling and writing the Governor and as many legislators as possible. Here's a link to legislators' e-mail addresses. Thank you to SPSLeaks.
Leg. Emails Excel
Leg. Emails Word
From Someone said:
Unfortunately - scrib is down for maintainence right now - but when it's up - there is a button that says "download" in upper right corner of screen - click that, save Julian's file to your computer.
Comments
Arne Duncan has been pressuring states to lift the cap on charter schools and in many states the cap gets raised yearly based on outside pressure from big money.
In term of Gregoire, I would definitely keep the pressure on her. She was all over the teacher evaluation bill, she loved it and pushed for it so I wouldn't trust her with anything else.
She and our other representatives need to know that we don't want our schools privatized.
It's been voted down three times and after the Pettigrew episode one LD after another started to pass anti-charter resolutions.
The charter groups want caps lifted.
Meanwhile some states have wised up and said, "Hey where are the results? Why do we have so many charters that aren't doing what they said? We were supposed to be able to get rid of them easily and we can't."
That's the new fight in states with charters.
According to Jim Camden at The Spokesman-Review: “’I will veto it,’ Gregoire said of the charter schools addition, which is part of six reforms in the new budget proposal. ‘Stop wasting everybody’s time.’”
Indeed. Stop wasting everyone's time!!
-Beth
Do you know Sen. Murray's position on charter schools?
I'll check in with his office tomorrow.
Her actions on Common Core State Standards .... well that is another story.
-- Dan Dempsey
Julian
http://today.seattletimes.com/2012/03/senator-charter-school-veto-promise-unfortunate-referendum-possible/
I would protest that it's not yet Friday, but close enough.
That Spokesman Review article says that not only did they try to sneak charters back in, but the money to do so would have come by gutting the funding for the "collaborative" College/School District schools bill that *did* pass this Session.
To repeat: The Corporate Reformies only want to fund innovation where investors can make a buck. That is the ONLY explanation for the bait-and-switch from Collaborative schools to Charter schools funding.
Moral Bankruptcy personified.
Ed Voter
Do you see them demanding better management of all the millions from lottery sale? Washington state lottery brings in revenue of $523 million in 2011 and only $150 million is given to the state for education. The other $370 million is for prize money, commissions, and HUGH admin cost. And no one in Olympia seems to think this is a sham. What not worth defecting or sneaking an amendment to fix this?
- voter
It was somewhere between 35-40.
Obviously, they only have 11 so it's running in the red.
Wish I had taken him up on that bet.
Nationally, the amount up for grabs by the privateers, is $600Billion/year...
Nice money if you can get your hands on it...
A-coalition-of-the-willing-wants-more-say-on-a-new-superintendent/