Senate Passes Charter School Bill
Update: one reader asked about the costs and here's the link to the fiscal note. Quite eye-opening and fyi, according to the note there are just about 840 students, not 1,000. That's what happens when charters are forced to tell the truth instead of throw numbers around in ads.
end of update
A bit of a yawn as we all knew this would happen and the only question was which charter bill. They passed Senator Litzow's bill, SB 6194.
The House is not going to see the same outcome (or I doubt it.) Even if they did pass one, again, I doubt Governor Inslee would sign it.
Why? Because the darn thing is STILL not constitutional. I don't know if charter supporters don't listen or don't have good lawyers but fixing the funding was not the entire issue. There is still no real elected oversight.
Sure, they are trying to muscle the State Superintendent on the Charter Commission but Dorn told me he didn't think any superintendent would have time for that and he would send a substitute. If that happens, there goes your elected oversight (at least on the Commission.)
If this bill becomes law, I'm fairly sure it will get hauled back into court and it starts all over.
I have to wonder about why the Supreme Court is getting dissed on all sides by the legislature with lawmakers seemingly ignoring the sanctions on the lack of work on McCleary AND seeing how fast legislators ran to pass a charter bill that isn't constitutional.
The rollcall:
Yeas: 27 Nays: 20 Absent: 0 Excused: 2
Voting Yea: Senator Angel, Bailey, Baumgartner, Becker, Benton, Braun, Brown, Dammeier, Dansel, Ericksen, Fain, Hewitt, Hill, Hobbs, Honeyford, King, Litzow, Miloscia, Mullet, O'Ban, Padden, Parlette, Rivers, Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon, Warnick Voting Nay: Senator Billig, Carlyle, Chase, Cleveland, Conway, Darneille, Fraser, Frockt, Hargrove, Hasegawa, Jayapal, Keiser, Liias, McAuliffe, McCoy, Nelson, Pearson, Pedersen, Rolfes, Takko Absent: Excused: Senator Habib, Ranker
Interestingly the two senators, Billig and Baumgartner who wrote the other charter bill, voted in opposite directions.
From a transcript of testimony given before the vote:
Senator Mullet (D-Issaquah) testified in support of the bill:
The bill requires OSPI to reimburse charter schools for any loss in state funding directly resulting from the state Supreme Court decision.
Also, Senator Ann Rivers from R-La Center had this to say about McCleary in The Columbian:
“I’m sick to death of talking about
McCleary, and a lot of other people are, too,” Rivers said of the court
case that resulted in an order that lawmakers must fulfill their
paramount duty under the state constitution and adequately fund the
state’s public schools. But tackling more specifics in the 60-day
legislative session, Rivers said, “wasn’t in the cards.”
This is the same Senator Rivers who left work group Town Halls right on the ending time, despite large numbers of people who had been patiently waiting in line to give their point of view.
But the good Senator has the time to vote for this charter bill.
Once again, priorities, kids.
end of update
A bit of a yawn as we all knew this would happen and the only question was which charter bill. They passed Senator Litzow's bill, SB 6194.
The House is not going to see the same outcome (or I doubt it.) Even if they did pass one, again, I doubt Governor Inslee would sign it.
Why? Because the darn thing is STILL not constitutional. I don't know if charter supporters don't listen or don't have good lawyers but fixing the funding was not the entire issue. There is still no real elected oversight.
Sure, they are trying to muscle the State Superintendent on the Charter Commission but Dorn told me he didn't think any superintendent would have time for that and he would send a substitute. If that happens, there goes your elected oversight (at least on the Commission.)
If this bill becomes law, I'm fairly sure it will get hauled back into court and it starts all over.
I have to wonder about why the Supreme Court is getting dissed on all sides by the legislature with lawmakers seemingly ignoring the sanctions on the lack of work on McCleary AND seeing how fast legislators ran to pass a charter bill that isn't constitutional.
The rollcall:
Yeas: 27 Nays: 20 Absent: 0 Excused: 2
Voting Yea: Senator Angel, Bailey, Baumgartner, Becker, Benton, Braun, Brown, Dammeier, Dansel, Ericksen, Fain, Hewitt, Hill, Hobbs, Honeyford, King, Litzow, Miloscia, Mullet, O'Ban, Padden, Parlette, Rivers, Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon, Warnick Voting Nay: Senator Billig, Carlyle, Chase, Cleveland, Conway, Darneille, Fraser, Frockt, Hargrove, Hasegawa, Jayapal, Keiser, Liias, McAuliffe, McCoy, Nelson, Pearson, Pedersen, Rolfes, Takko Absent: Excused: Senator Habib, Ranker
Interestingly the two senators, Billig and Baumgartner who wrote the other charter bill, voted in opposite directions.
From a transcript of testimony given before the vote:
Senator Mullet (D-Issaquah) testified in support of the bill:
“...After the supreme court ruling I visited Summit Sierra Charter School. For the first time in my life, I visited a charter school. I took my children along. I was greeted by school kids chanting “Save our School.” You can imagine my shock seeing kids this in love with their school. It quickly became apparent that they viewed the elected officials working to close down charter schools as the equivalent of the First Order in the new Star Wars movie, “The Force Awakens.” As an elected official, I am supposed to be Hans Solo or Luke Skywalker, not Darth Vader. What the supreme court did that day was evil and unfair. My daughter made an interesting comment, saying “Dad, if the parents and the students both love the schools, why does somebody vote to close the school?...”Comparing the Court to Darth Vadar and calling the Court's ruling "evil and unfair" does not illuminate or elevate the discussion.
Comments
Lastly, if getting fewer than 100 students to start chanting is enough to create education policy where can we sign up to have Senator Mullet come visit some actual public school classrooms? Thanks to the failure of the legislature to fully fund education we could have high school classes of 38 chanting "give us desks".
--Civics Lesson
Beginning in 2019, prohibits new charter schools from being established until the Supreme Court no longer retains jurisdiction in the McCleary case. Does not impact charter schools that are in existence prior to 2019.
The amendment was not adopted.
Other Democrats offered this amendment:
Provides legislative intent recognizing the importance
of providing educational stability to the students who had
previously attended charter schools prior to the Supreme Court’s
ruling and also recognizing that the state has an equally important
obligation to the over one million students in our public schools
who continue to wait for the state to provide them with the
educational opportunities guaranteed by the state constitution.
The amendment was not adopted.
He needs to talk to those people and read those reports and lawsuits and then come back and tell us with a straight face that the Supreme Court are the villains here, rather than the hedge funds and billionaires seeking to profit off our our children.
(note on that lawsuit: http://dianeravitch.net/2016/01/20/breaking-news-parents-file-federal-civil-rights-complaint-against-success-academy-charters/ )
It is also interesting to note that Seattle, Tacoma, Kent and Highline have NOT signed Inter-Local Agreements with the Mary Walker School District.
"The bill requires OSPI to reimburse charter schools for any loss in state funding directly resulting from the state Supreme Court decision."
"State expenditures in the bill are generated by the restoration of funds to charter schools, and to the reimbursement of funds to charter schools who continued to operate through the state funded school system beyond December 1, 2015. Those charter schools which either applied to become home school providers, or filed applications to become private schools would not generate the reimbursement as they would be accepting state dollars for services rendered outside the state funded educational system."
That last paragraph somewhat contradicts the first one. I would think Summit,as a home school provider, and First Place, which went back to being private, would get only a portion of these funds.
Wait,what?
As well,
"Eliminates the Washington State Charter School Commission from the governance structure for the state’s public common school system."
But the CC will reside within OSPI for "administrative purposes."
Oh and that "1300 charter students?" This fiscal note says there would be reimbursement for just 841.51 students.
PW
That is an understatement and why the fight has to go on. Luckily,these charter supporters can't seem to write a constitutional bill.
"Today the Senate voted on a plan to use lottery dollars for charter schools rather than the general fund in an effort to address Supreme Court objections.
David Frockt and I introduced an amendment to allow current schools to continue but allow no further growth beyond 2019 unless the Legislature has met its paramount duty of fully funding public education.
Andy Billig introduced a well crafted amendment to provide local school districts a general oversight role of future charters.
Pramila Jayapal introduced an amendment to clarify the intent of the Legislature to resolve McCleary.
Our amendments were defeated.
Because there was no willingness to negotiate, compromise or modify the majority plan in any way, I voted no on final passage. My district voted nearly 70% against I-1240. I hope we can craft a responsible resolution to both McCleary and charters and believe we should make meaningful progress to help all students and families equally."
Thank you,Senator Carlyle.
Melissa,
Do you have the link to the number of students in charter schools?
"Oh and that "1300 charter students?" This fiscal note says there would be reimbursement for just 841.51 students. "
Step #3 (page 9) of the fiscal note, where there are 841.51 students, appears to be for the six schools going through Mary Walker district for ALE funding. It doesn't include the other three former charter schools.
LisaG