Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Associated Press is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed in King County Superior court over the new charter school law passed by the Legislature in the spring. Teachers unions, parents and other groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday over Washington’s new charter school law, a measure that was enacted last spring after the state Supreme Court struck down the old law.  The group includes the Washington Education Association, League of Women Voters, El Centro de la Raza and several labor unions.

Apparently not, at least when it comes to charter schools.  My second batch of public disclosure e-mails raises more troubling questions. In my first batch, I explained how a couple of other districts' lawyers were worried about running afoul of state law in signing interlocal documents to allow students within their district borders to have an ALE with Mary Walker School District. This batch reveals more concerns from other people. Among them was the overarching role of Washington State Charter Schools Association. Who are they?

Let's start with charters. You may recall the "yet another faux ed reform group" called Act Now for Washington Students .  This group is organized by the usual suspects - LEV, Stand for Children, DFER and the Washington State Charter Schools Association.  All these get money from the Gates Foundation. They have formed a PAC that hopes to raise (and presumably spend) $500,000 just for this legislative session to influence legislators on charter schools.  They have already spent $20K on 13 House members (each got $1,000) including Seattle's charter cheerleader, Eric Pettigrew.  This is in addition to the number of print and tv ads running.  It is not cheap to run a local ad during football Sunday. 

Update 2:  I wrote to Kevin Jacka, the superintendent of Mary Walker School District, to ask him about his resignation from the Charter Commission and about taking the orphan charter schools into his district. Here's what he said (or didn't say);

At last Thursday's Charter Commission meeting, the Commission approved two new charters.  (Between Spokane School District and the Commission, there were a total of two approved this year.  The law allows eight a year and any spots not used in a year will then roll over into following years.

Update: I asked the Washington State Charter Commission staff about the letter of intent as I had gone back, read the WAC and realized that anything in it was "nonbinding" (including the fact that the letter of intent doesn't mean anyone has to follow-thru).  Here was their reply: The purpose of the Notice of Intent (NOI) is two-fold: First, they help us as staff plan for the upcoming application cycle. Second, per WAC 108-20-010 (1) a NOI is a requirement of the application process.  As you pointed out, the NOI is nonbinding.  Information submitted on an NOI does not prevent an applicant from submitting a different application from what is suggested in the NOI. End of update. As I previously reported, Green Dot has submitted a letter of intent to the Charter Commission to open their second Puget Sound region charter school this time in "south Seattle."  A couple of readers alerted me that Green Dot had two open houses this week, one in the SW and one in...

Let's review the Times coverage of the Washington charter school law this week. On the charter law court ruling, they manage to confuse readers with two different headlines but settled on one that makes it sound like it was upheld but " questions remain."    Then, they only quote the pro-charter side  (going to their go-to source, Lisa Macfarlane).   They do quote the plaintiffs' lawyer but that's not the same as going to sources who oppose charters (like some of the actual plaintiffs). Next comes Lynne Varner and other mistake-ridden education opinion along with her usual shot at the teachers' union. First, she hilariously says that Judge Rietschel's opinion is "antiquated" because it comes from our "constitutional framers."  (I'm guessing that she would never agree with Supreme Court justice Scalia who is a strict constitutionalist.)  The problem is that we have the Constitution that exists and until that is changed, she...

The deadline for letters of intent to file a charter school proposal in Washington State was 5 p.m. today.  Checking the Charter Commission website , I count 15 but Seattle Weekly is reporting 24 (I suspect SW called and asked and that the Charter Commission just doesn't have all of them up yet). Those 24 do NOT include whatever letters of intent that Spokane School District received as it is the only school district in the state to be a charter school authorizer. All full applications must be in on November 22nd. Seattle Weekly had a good story on Puget Sound hopefuls who are getting a boost via the Washington State Charter Schools Association (and, of course, the money coming from the Gates Foundation).  Three different women each received $100k for their charter school planning. A second charter group out of California, Summit Public Schools that runs high schools, has filed (joining Green Dot). The newest entries are signalled by a *. Academy of Continuing Ed...

Over the Washington State Charter Schools Association, they announced the " members of the inaugural Washington State Charter Leader Cohort."   What's striking to me? 1) "... over two dozen applicants in a national search. "  Two dozen over the entire country?  That's all?  Boy, I would have thought they would have droves.  After all, this is what they get: Cohort members will receive coaching on writing a charter school application and board member recruitment. They will also receive a planning stipend during 2013-14, and a variety of support services, including travel to visit high-performing public charter schools, and office space. 2) Here's what they say about the selection process: Representatives from parent, university, school district, and charter communities participated in the selection process. It would be interesting to know what school districts but I certainly hope it wasn't anyone from Seattle School District. 3) Gue...