Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Update : in yet another desperate effort, Robin Lake of the Center for Reinventing Public Education put out this writing effort.   It's semi-hysteric tone sounds a lot like what comes out of the Washington Policy Center. To my great surprise, she is one of the few to still say this: Our law is one of the best in the country. What? All of this progress was threatened last September, however, when the state Supreme Court ruled the initiative unconstitutional. This innovative approach didn’t fit into a 1909 definition of “common schools”, leading the court to conclude that the schools couldn’t receive traditional public school funding streams. Right, that pesky state constitution.  Here's a thought - write an initiative or bill that is constitutional sound and you will have your charters.   And she makes the claim - without one single shred of documentation of data - that most of the charters are seeing massive improvement with their students.  Sayi...

As I have previously stated, I have had public disclosure requests in for some time to various groups including former charter schools in Washington State, OSPI, and the Charter Commission.  I am still awaiting yet another drop from OSPI. I had a very difficult time getting ahold of anyone from couple of former charters and gave up.  But, if they ARE public schools, there should be no mystery of who is their public disclosure officer and how to contact that person.

(Editor's note: I am not a lawyer.  I am a layperson who is interested in the law and I have sought to understand the Washington State Supreme Court ruling on the charter school law.)  Background

From my previous thread and now with some answers to questions arising from the reconsideration extension granted to the Washington State Charter School Association by the Washington State Supreme Court.

This is one of the funnier press announcements I have read in a long time. In a ruling Sept. 4, the Washington State Supreme Court declared the initiative that established our state’s charter schools to be unconstitutional. This ruling potentially affects more than 1,000 students who have already started the 2015-16 school year. “Even before the initiative was finalized, I warned the drafters it was unconstitutional,” State Superintendent Randy Dorn said. “And after the initiative was passed, I sent a letter to key education leaders in the state legislature expressing my concerns. “But now that school is in session, we need to do everything we can not to disrupt the education of the students caught in the middle of this argument.” This is the second time in two months that the state Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of our current education system. Dorn urges the governor to call a solution-oriented special legislative session to fix the charter school law and to addre...

Two stories from two noted national newspapers. One is from the New York Times and is one of the most objectively written stories on public education that I have read in a long time.  Its overview is the turmoil in public education in Washington State, including the Seattle teachers strike but is mostly about the Supreme Court decision on the charter law. About the charter ruling; We are now firmly on that chess table,” said Thomas Franta, the chief executive of the Washington State Charter Schools Association. But he said the political terrain had gotten tricky because with two giant education issues facing the Legislature, the pressure would be immense to tackle them at the same time in a special session. “And doing them both at the same time is going to be more difficult,” he added. But David Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center, which advises lawyers on education financing cases, said the Washington ruling could foreshadow fights over char...

From KPLU : A network of donors will step up if necessary to keep Washington state's nine charter schools open through the school year, a leading charter advocate said Tuesday, even if public dollars stop flowing in the wake of a state Supreme Court decision voiding Washington's charter school law . Tom Franta, who heads the Washington State Charter Schools Association, said his organization has reached out to a network of something like 50 donors — whom Franta declined to identify — that can help cover the estimated $14 million necessary to cover all nine schools' operating costs through the end of the year. Here's some remaining mysteries:

That would be First Place Scholars except that it may not even be open at this point. From the Times' coverage of the striking down of the charter law by the Washington State Supreme Court: In Seattle, Summit Sierra, a new college-prep high school, opened Aug. 17 in the Chinatown International District with its inaugural freshman class of 130. School also started Aug. 17 at SOAR Academy and Summit: Olympus in Tacoma. Excel Public Charter School in Kent began Aug. 20, and Destiny Charter Middle School in Tacoma opened Aug. 24. Rainier Prep’s first day of class was Tuesday.“We will absolutely be here ready for kids on Tuesday,” said Executive Director Malia Burns. PRIDE Prep and Spokane International Academy in the Spokane area opened last month. You'll see two things in that reporting.  No mention of FPS.  I don't know why but I suspect that may be because they haven't opened their doors for this year or may not be at all.  But not mentioning them is odd given th...