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.

Comments

Josh Hayes said…
There were, for a time, a couple of signaturians at the Green Lake PCC; they have not been there for several days. I suspect the typical PCC shopper is onto them.

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?
suep. said…
The Times claims they will have enough signatures, in this article by B. Rosenthal ("Well-funded charter-school initiative has nearly enough signatures to make ballot"), who's strangely vague about the statistical facts about charter success.

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
Juana said…
I was on a ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle on Saturday and there was a person collecting signatures. Happily most people were NOT interested.
mirmac1 said…
Yeah, I hate it when the Times glosses over the details,
Kathy said…
I am encouraging individuals to campaign against 1240 on fourth of July and this weekend. Please consider giving an hour of your time.

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.
We Bought a Zoo said…
omg - charter schools. it will be the end of the world as we know it. just like in the 41 other states. omg. omg.
Anonymous said…
ZOO...please enlighten us how benign Charter Schools will be for WA state—but most importantly, Seattle. I see tons of negatives, from reduced funding to already strapped public schools to Seattle voters refusing to pass the next levies since they could benefit Charters (and thus a bunch of corporate "non-profits") instead. If you can give me good reasons as to why I don't need to worry about this, please do. Snarky comments are more than worthless—especially from a moniker that is rarely on this blog.

SolvayGirl
Patrick said…
We Bought a Zoo -- Not the end of the world, but just one more way Washington can pay more for education and get worse results.
Dorothy Neville said…
In 41 states, charter schools are the status quo.
Josh Hayes said…
The Stranger reports that charter supporters claim to have gotten enough signatures. See my link to the SLOG article over in Tuesday's open thread (or just bop on over to SLOG and check it out yourself). Sigh.
We Bought - okay, sell us on charters.

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.
Anonymous said…
Any one who thinks charters are benign needs to read the heartbreaking stories of parents and teachers from NYC, Los Angeles, Philadephia, Chicago, New Orleans, and the list goes on. Read the stories of families from KIPP and Green Dot. These are not benign stories; they're just unreported. "Zoo" read the blogs that share the stories - Parents Across America, Diane Ravitch, Susan Ohanian, Schools Matter, Living in Dialogue...

K
You'll note that Zoo snarked and ran. That's about right for people who don't want to tell the whole truth and then TRUST voters to make the right choice.
Charlie Mas said…
omg - charter schools. it will be the postive change that will revolutionalize education as we know it. just like in the 41 other states. omg. omg.
Rufus X said…
We Bought, Gladys Alice, Megan the Vegan - obviously all posted by the same antagonistic person. If a ping is possible, it would probably show that the posts are from the same IP address. If I happened to be a betting woman, I'd put money on who I think the person is, but then I'd put myself at risk for being banned for outing an anonymous poster.

We should not feed the troll.
Northender said…
I'm on the fence about charters. I did sign the petition. My neighbors and friends are happy with their schools, but they live in affluent neighborhoods. My friends who live near a school that isn't so great had their kids tested for APP, and if their kid didn't get into APP, they paid $300 to have their kid privately tested to get in. I don't think we currently have fair access to good schools, and there certainly aren't enough seats or transportation options available for every family to choose a school that works for their kid. I don't think charters are the answer. I don't think they're going to meet the needs of every frustrated parent, but I also don't think they're going to damage anything that's working well. Our district has made so many mistakes, and I do not see anything changing in a significant way anytime soon. Other districts across the state also have problems. I'm okay with our state voting on charters. Maybe charters are exactly what Wenatchee, or Yakima, or Ellensburg need.
Northender, when I say to you that they can take over any existing school with just a petition, that is okay with you?

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.
caroline said…
Caroline from San Francisco here, responding to the question about Reed Hastings, CEO/founder of Netflix. Pushing corporate education "reform" fads is really popular with Silicon Valley hotshots, as it is with corporate billionaires like Bill Gates and with hedge-funders in NYC. Most of these people have zero experience in education and just think they know better than teachers and parents because they're masters of the universe, of course.

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.

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