Please Call, Tweet or E-Mail Your Rep in Legislature
Update: Here's an interesting tweet from Rep Chris Reykdal:
"68 tweets tagging me to support charter schools. Not one of them calls for fully funding our public schools. Sad!"
Yes, that is sad but not surprising. What's really sad? That if the charter bill passes, the charter schools WILL reap the benefits of McCleary when it's fully enacted and they didn't publicly lift a finger. Not one school, not WSCSA.
end of update
The Legislature is going to discuss this charter bill tomorrow and probably vote.
If you believe that McCleary was mostly ignored, they need to hear from you.
If you don't believe in charter schools, they need to hear from you.
If you believe that 1M Washington state students who have been waiting years for fully-funded schools should be trumped by 900 students in schools open less than a year, they need to hear from you.
Info on contacting your legislator is here.
"68 tweets tagging me to support charter schools. Not one of them calls for fully funding our public schools. Sad!"
Yes, that is sad but not surprising. What's really sad? That if the charter bill passes, the charter schools WILL reap the benefits of McCleary when it's fully enacted and they didn't publicly lift a finger. Not one school, not WSCSA.
end of update
The Legislature is going to discuss this charter bill tomorrow and probably vote.
If you believe that McCleary was mostly ignored, they need to hear from you.
If you don't believe in charter schools, they need to hear from you.
If you believe that 1M Washington state students who have been waiting years for fully-funded schools should be trumped by 900 students in schools open less than a year, they need to hear from you.
Info on contacting your legislator is here.
Comments
-- Ivan Weiss
If you go to House Floor Activity, you'll see SB 6194 is on the floor calendar. The striking amendment has been added.
Once the bill is on the Order of Consideration, you'll know the vote is coming.
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The order of consideration today is:
1) HB 2968 Kindergarten, K-3 class size
2) HB 2988 Budget stabilization T.O.
3) ESSB 6201 Supplemental capital budget
4) ESSB 6194 Public non-common schools
Thank you, Ivan. I have made it pretty clear to the Governor myself. He is being quite unclear on his stance on charter schools and it's troubling but that's his call during an election year.
His office told me this to my query:
"His position hasn’t changed.Innovation and accountability are both important to him. If legislators reach agreement and send him a bill he’ll look at it but so far they haven’t done so."
You can't hedge much more than that.
This is a sad day for Washington state residents. We will watch an elected body seek to circumvent the constitution, and do so in a way that lacks transparency and public input.
I fully expect Gerry Pollet to make an amendments.
Actions taken on the floor of each chamber are taken by elected representatives after public testimony and input. We elect these members of the state legislature to represent our interests. Floor amendments, including striking amendments, are our representatives doing just that.
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Inslee owes this state's teachers, big time. They put their efforts into electing him when they could have been concentrating on stopping I-1240, which barely passed. Now it's his turn to help them (and us), and they (and we) had better not let him forget it. After his shameful, unconscionable sellout of the Machinists' pension while he groveled to Boeing, he needs to re-establish at least some credibility with the unionized workers in this state.
If you're a teacher and you're reading this, you know what to do. Send your leadership a message.
-- Ivan Weiss
reader47
As well, the public did NOT have an opportunity to weigh-in on the striker bill and the bill will be in play...less than 24 hours...after the bill was released to the public. Please.
I look forward to your comments if title- only bills come into play and that IS the plan.
Ah the SEA right where they need to be.. nowhere
- Union Member (not for long)
Please, would you please stand up for the public schools in our state, and the 1,000,000+ public school children that are waiting for the legislature to meet their constitutional obligations?
The private operators of the charter schools that are serving only 1,000 students should not be allowed to jump to the front of the line.
Please, stand up and state your clear and unequivocal support for our public schools and tell those few to wait their turn. Let them know that you will veto any legislative "fix" for the few that comes before a fix for the many.
And again, there are dozens if not hundreds of striking amendments every legislative session. And those striking amendments are dropped sometimes minutes before a vote. This is not a charter-specific scenario.
Finally, not everything that occurs involves direct democracy. We are a republican democracy and we depend upon our elected representatives to serve our interests. The public is not going to have direct input into every action of the legislature.
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http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=6194&year=2016
I will no longer engage with you. Geesh.
- a couple would strike the "emergency" clause
- a couple would put back that there can only be 40 in five years
- one saves only the 8 charter schools
- one would hold districts harmless if they lose more than 10 students in their state allocations
- one would add the McKinney-Vento Act to federal acts (M-K is for homeless students)
- one would put no more than 3 charters in a single district until 2020 and then, removed if no financial/performance audit issues for those charters
- one would remove lottery preferences for sibs and employees' kids
- one would have the charter lose its contract if it has an at-risk student try to enroll and is not accepted
- one would require monthly reports of all revenue and sources of for every charter school
- one would require that charter students who access a district's athletics are restricted to only those sports that a district offers.
- one would require charter students who access a district's athletics to pay full costs minus student fee
- one would require charters to notify prospective, new or current families of any on-going litigation
- one would have members of the Charter Commission and charter boards file financial disclosure statements
- one would have one school board member of district where charter resides serve on charter school board
- one amendment attempts to protect the funds in the Opp fund
- one amendment would require the majority of a charter school board to be parents at charter school
- one amendment would not require school districts to have info on charters at their enrollment centers
- one would have teacher evaluation 4-tier process for both cert and non-cert charter teachers
- one would put State Superintendent and Ex Director of BOE (or reps) on Charter Commission and take out clause that there can only be up to five members of the same political party on the CC
This could take a long, long time to go thru these.
One thing, though. If this bill gets thru and goes to the Governor, I hope he will have the good grace to tell people what he will do and not leave people hanging. He's been very coy so far and, for me, it's not serving him well.
Am I missing something else?
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http://www.tvw.org/tvchannels/house/