Seattle Schools Community Forum

Remember all that hair-pulling and finger-pointing when the Washington Supreme Court issued its ruling on the charter school law right before school opened last September? Well, I sat down and watched the interview with Chief Justice Madsen on TVW . (You should watch the whole thing.  She is quietly deferential to the other branches of government and careful about what she says.  The second half of the show was Rep. Matt Manweller and Rep David Frockt talking about the McCleary issue.  Rep. Manweller could not have been more disrespectful to the Court.  It's fine to disagree but if anyone is taking this to a constitutional crisis, it's some in the legislature.) But I digress.  That point I wanted to make was brought up when host, Austin Jenkins, asked about that timing of the ruling? Chief Justice Madsen pointed out the average time for most cases to go thru the Court and that the charter school case was, indeed, about average at 90-120 days. Then she sa...

Where are we with the Washington State charter law? As usual, waiting on the Supreme Court.  The last action that I see is that four former state attorneys general — Slade Gorton, Ken Eikenberry, Chris Gregoire and Rob McKenna - filed a friend of the court document, asking the Court to reconsider. This was filed right at the end of October which may have been on purpose - the Court does have to read and consider everything filed. I think the Court will politely tell all these people - thanks for the input but we got it right the first time.  They will say thanks for the input but outcomes from the ruling ("this will hurt other education initiatives the Legislature funds") fall on the Legislature to solve.  But the ruling on charters is separate from those. I think the one bone the Court will throw out is asking the Legislature to fund the existing charters thru the end of the school year.  Given how late the Court ruled on the challenge and now, the lateness o...

Today the Washington State Charter School Association announced that the state Supreme Court had granted their request for more time to file for a reconsideration of the ruling on the charter law from the Court.  The due date had been around this time and is now October 24th.  I'm thinking the Court is a bit chastised for the timing of their ruling and may be throwing a bone out there.  I don't think it means much else. Second, the State Auditor released an audit of First Place Charter School.  Below is the press release.  Pretty damning and expands even more on issues the Charter Commission had raised for months.   Public charter schools are required to follow state laws holding them accountable for the use of public resources. The state Charter School Commission asked our Office to conduct an audit of First Place Scholars Charter School, the first school to receive public funding under Washington’s Charter School I...