Washington State Charter Law Struck Down
Today the Washington Supreme Court struck down the charter school law.
Conclusion
The portions of the I-1240 designating charter schools as common schools violate article IX, section 2 of the Washington Constitution and are invalid. For the same reason, the portions of I-1240 providing access to restricted common school funding are also invlaid. These provisions are not severable and render entire Act unconstitutional.
Told you so.
Conclusion
The portions of the I-1240 designating charter schools as common schools violate article IX, section 2 of the Washington Constitution and are invalid. For the same reason, the portions of I-1240 providing access to restricted common school funding are also invlaid. These provisions are not severable and render entire Act unconstitutional.
Told you so.
Comments
-NNNCr
Aghast
Inquiring Mind
NoCharters
West
Watch for the constitutional amendment campaign coming up.
Longtime lurker
I bet they will have to shut down. Who knows. At least there is time for those kids to join the common schools.
West
West Seattleite
TGIF!!!!!
CT
West
Disgusting.
Citizen Kane
-AH parent
West
Look up myopia in the dictionary. It could be enlightening.
Citizen Kane
Though I do feel for the students caught up in this boondoggle, students whose parents enrolled them in charters even as the court was reviewing their legality....but I know they will be welcome in their neighborhood public schools.
Did the state charter school commission read the constitution ? This decision was not unexpected.
Did the charter school commission make any provision for students if this likely decision occurred or are those kids and families simply neglected?
I will be waiting for Steve Sundquist to provide advice.
Inquiring Mind
The Charter Commission freely admits to not having enough resources.
We were awaiting the Supreme Court Decision and the district foolishly asked the board for permission to become a charter school authorizer. The board was smart to disallow the district from becoming charter school authorizers. Enormous amounts of time and dollars would have gone into this useless endeavor.
I 1240 ended-up being an enormous waste of time, energy, attention and funding.
Go change the charter law and let's hope it'll finally push public schools to be better. As for accountable...let me count the ways that public schools get away with it...read this blog for examples.
" I wouldn't put my child in a boat if land was safe"
CD
Catherine Ahl
If you want a boat, buy it with your own money. We need tax dollars for public schools.
Stick around; advocate for excellence. Join your fellow citizens because you can't have our money to row away with.
WPC calls on Legislature to protect the charter school education of 1,300 children from the unjust decision of the state Supreme Court
SEATTLE — This afternoon the state Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, announced its decision to hold unconstitutional Washington’s charter school law, passed by voters in 2012. Based on a narrow, technical reading of the charter school law, and a misunderstanding of education appropriations, the state Supreme Court has temporarily closed charter schools in Washington state. This decision cuts off public funding to the nine charter schools that have either already started school or will open next week.
The state court has now effectively thrown 1,300 children out of the schools they and their families voluntarily chose. Most of these students are low-income, minority and immigrant children, and with this decision have had their hopes for a better education crushed by six justices.
The court’s error can be corrected by the state Legislature, which should reconvene immediately to fix this technical issue in the voters' charter school law. The education of 1,300 students depends upon our elected leaders taking decisive action to correct this fundamentally unjust opinion from the court.
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Washington Policy Center
Improving lives through market solutions
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Exhausted Mind
Summary of the Lawsuit Against Charter Schools
By
Liv Finne, Director, Center for Education, October, 2013
Key Findings
1.. The constitutional question posed by the lawsuit is whether charter public schools qualify as “common schools” and are therefore eligible to receive public funding.
2.. The definition of a “common school” under existing Washington law includes a variety of alternative, innovative, and parental choice schools; schools similar to charter schools.
3.. As described by the new voter-approved Charter School Act, Washington’s charter schools share the same essential characteristics and attributes of other common schools in Washington, and are therefore eligible to receive public funding to educate children.
4.. Voters passed the Charter School Act in order to offer parents and children in Washington a charter public school choice.
Exhausted Mind
They knew and they gambled. And now they - and the children they gambled with - lost. They made that bet. This was not some error on their part.
Is it narrow? Well, it is in that it applies to one part of the Constitution in specific. That's generally how it's done.
I am sorry for the children enrolled in charters but again, that's on the people who wrote a law that I believe they knew would not withstand scrutiny. I said this from the start.
That this happens on the eve of what may be a teachers strike is not good but we don't get to decide when the Court puts out an opinion.
Liv Finne is not a constitutional expert; the judges on the Supreme Court are. They can take it to the U.S Supreme Court but I'll go on record as saying if they do, the High Court will reject the case.
The history of charters is not that they do better overall than regular public schools nor are they more accountable nor do they provide more innovation. Those are facts. Do they provide choice? Yes. But that's cannot be the only reason to use public dollars.
Decisions need to be made about existing charter schools. I'm wondering if SPS will be asked to absorb First Place.
The Legislature will do what with what money? No, Gates will fund those charters until they get their next big idea.
-smiling teacher
Yes I agree that all schools should be more accountable for money given to them..but I agree that traditional public schools aren't the end all be all. It's sad that the law wasn't written throughly.
CD
Half Full
West
Whatever you may believe about charter schools, they are not in fact run by the devil and his minions. These folks are incredibly hard-working, intelligent, and focused on the kids. Just like "regular" public school employees, they are underpaid and overworked. They are trying to do something new and different, and they must be very, very worried right now. I understand the argument against charter schools (and in theory, tend to agree that they are problematic), but I really feel for the people who have given so much time and energy in preparing their schools/classrooms and now have to deal with a very uncertain future.
But the people who wrote and pushed this law had to know it would not meet our state's very specific constitution. THEY pushed this, THEY supported and allowed all these hard-working people to go forward. In fact, at one point, Green Dot had wisely said they would wait for the judgment of the Court.
It is never a good idea to go full-speed ahead if the entire premise of what you are doing is going to court. People gambled and they gambled with children's academic lives.
Blame them for their hubris.
But it's always a good day when the constitution is upheld and protected. Our nation and state depend on it.
1. Please don't compare asylum seekers drowning on the high seas to poor public schools. Both of them are bad, but they're not equivalent.
2. You're tell us that charter schools are terrible schools and only slightly less awful than public schools. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. People fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries are willing to put their families in tiny, overcrowded boats that tip easily only because traveling by land is even more dangerous. Neither are good options.
Charter schools can be good alternatives to local public schools, but most of them aren't any better (and are often worse) than the schools they draw from. We need a more stringent approval process and very strict rules against for-profit charter schools.
Legally, the problem with charter schools is that they're not accountable to voters. It might be possible to fix this by creating local school boards (elected by voters) for each charter school.
North mom
There were many disturbing aspects of I 1240. Out -of- state charter school operators and silencing the voices were amongst my concerns.
As Melissa states, charter supporters claimed they had the best charter school law in the country and they gambled with children's lives; including the children that were prematurely placed in existing charter schools.
My understanding is that the charter law wouldn't just have to be tweaked a little - both oversight and funding are unconstitutional as it stands. Is that correct? If so, is that even something the legislature could easily address, short of changing the state constitution?
-Ravenna
In the meantime, I'm celebrating that one more drain on public funding is going away.
Celebrating
I feel bad for the families as well, but honestly, knowing this case was out there and hadn't been settled...I certainly would not have taken that risk. I was reading an article recently in the Salt Lake paper about 2 charters that closed due to financial issues and other regulation troubles, and a parent who was interviewed said she was going to back to the public system because charter schools were just too risky and unpredictable. That's the market-based ideology at work - risk, chance, commodities..
CT
The next move revolves around a referendum or a legislative fix.