1240 Money Just Keeps Rolling In
And now, not to my surprise, it's coming from out-of-state.
The CEO of Netflicks, who lives in California, just put in $100k. Why would that be (and that's a question everyone should ask themselves).
Nick Hanauer has put in another $175k and Katherine Binder, another large money supporter, has put in another $100k. As well, the brothers who started My Space each gave $25k. They are startup investors. One of them is on the board of Edusoft, an assessment management company. Again, that should tell you something.
Now they are at $2.5M for their campaign and it's not even on the ballot.
Also, 1240 has not turned in their signatures yet so it is unlikely they are where they want to be for numbers.
If you are out and about tomorrow and see signature gatherers, please Decline to Sign and advocate to others as well.
The CEO of Netflicks, who lives in California, just put in $100k. Why would that be (and that's a question everyone should ask themselves).
Nick Hanauer has put in another $175k and Katherine Binder, another large money supporter, has put in another $100k. As well, the brothers who started My Space each gave $25k. They are startup investors. One of them is on the board of Edusoft, an assessment management company. Again, that should tell you something.
Now they are at $2.5M for their campaign and it's not even on the ballot.
Also, 1240 has not turned in their signatures yet so it is unlikely they are where they want to be for numbers.
If you are out and about tomorrow and see signature gatherers, please Decline to Sign and advocate to others as well.
Comments
I also did some loss-leader shopping at Top Foods up in Shoreline day before yesterday, and where there had been a small army of sig gatherers, there were now - none. Guess they figured they had already cleaned that store out? Or what?
The truth is, only 17% of charter schools perform any better, while a whopping 83% perform no better, or perform worse than completely public schools.
Source: Stanford University's CREDO study from 2009, the most comprehensive study of charter schools to date.
Also see Charter School Studies
Ferry lines, Farmers Markets etc. are a great way to encounter large amounts of people.
Most people don't want a lot of information.
Melissa, please paste the list of talking points we came up with.
Here is the list from League of Education Voters:
• Private boards selected by non-profit corporations rather than publicly elected by citizens will govern charter schools.
...
• Charter schools will be exempt from state statutes and rules applicable to school districts and boards, creating a separate and unequal school system even though Article IX of the Washington state Constitution requires a general and uniform system of common schools.
• The Initiative would create additional administrative functions and costs for the State Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and School Districts at a time when the Supreme Court has ruled in McCleary v. State that Washington is failing to provide ample funding for the basic education required by the Legislature (HB 2261).
• Although proponents of the Initiative promise “at risk” students and those from low-performing schools will be served by charter schools, nothing in the Initiative requires it.
• There are many successful innovative and alternative schools as part of the public school system in Washington state. Let’s encourage them and work toward full funding for all students in all schools rather than be distracted by charter schools that would only serve a few students chosen by lottery.
SolvayGirl
Sell us on how it would be okay to take over ANY school, failing or not, with a petition signed by a majority of teachers or parents. That's fair and that is good education? It's not but sell us on it.
As of now, the 1240 folks haven't made an appt at the Secy of State's office to drop off the petitions. This could mean they still need more signatures (i.e. work on the 4th) to buffer themselves or they need more signatures.
K
We should not feed the troll.
I'm going to write up the major issues with the initiative and would ask you to consider balancing that against creating new schools.
I have said this before, charters might be worth it if they wrote a good bill/initiative. I think it is worth waiting for the right bill as you will not be able to undo this.
I see this as a slow-moving tsunami. I don't have skin the in game except my taxes (and you can be sure I won't vote for school levies anymore if there are charters - no way).
But I will be sincerely sad when people are disappointed in what they get, when decent existing schools get taken over, when we lose valuable school buildings and when we see a lot of people and companies making money off public education.
Anyway, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been a key figure among Silicon Valley hotshots pushing charter schools and other education "reform" policies. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor, he packed the state Board of Education with charter school insiders and advocates, and Hastings was president of the state BOE for a while.
Hastings also started a charter school himself that's a poster child for a certain kind of charter. This is Pacific Collegiate charter high school in Santa Cruz, CA, which is indeed a highly successful school, but for reasons that raise a lot of ethical questions. Pacific Collegiate is like a private school -- it has a handpicked student population that is absolutely not representative of the greater community, which is heavily low-income Latino. Pacific Collegiate is a place privileged white parents can put their kids to ensure that the classrooms are free of high-need, resource-draining low-income Latino English-language learners. Pacific Collegiate also quasi-requires parents to donate $5,000/year as a quasi-voluntary fee. Then, with all those pieces in place, it is a very, very high-achieving school.
Within the charter world, the majority of charters are basically designed to serve low-income, disadvantaged communities, and that's a whole 'nother discussion. But a subset are designed to be exclusive bastions, using their "blissful freedom from burdensome bureaucratic regulations" as charters to keep out those they deem undesirable. So anyway, that's Reed Hastings' school. Discuss among yourselves.