Supreme Court says charter schools initiative is unconstitutional
The Washington State Supreme Court, in a late Friday surprise, delivered a ruling that the state’s voter-passed, billionaire-backed charter school initiative is unconstitutional.
The high court’s 6-3 ruling found that the independently organized schools do not pass muster as common public schools and therefore cannot receive public funding.
Bill and Melinda Gates: $3 million in support for 2012 charter schools initiative, just ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.
“We hold that provisions of Initiative 1240 that designate and treat charter schools as common schools violate article IX, Section 2 of our state Constitution and are void,” Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote in the majority opinion.
“This includes the Act’s funding provision, which attempts to tap into and shift a portion of moneys allocated for common schools to the new charter schools authorized by the Act. Because the provisions designating and funding charter schools as common schools are integral to the Act, such void provisions are not severable …”
In short, I-1240 goes down, although supporters said last night they would weigh legal options.
The ruling was greeted with surprise. The state has nine charter schools set to operate this fall in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Kent and Highline.
“We need to understand what this means for the children who would start at the three impacted schools in Seattle,” Mayor Ed Murray said via Facebook upon learning of the ruling.
John Zilavy, a Seattle parent, lamented on his Facebook page that the court’s ruling puts in “serious jeopardy” an educational took that “seems to be working.”
“Our experience so far with the new Summit Sierra Charter School in the International District is that it has really found a way to make both teachning and learning more effective for a diverse group of students,” Zilavy wrote.
I-1240 passed by a 1 percent margin in 2012, after charter schools had previously been rejected three times by Washington voters. Ninety-eight percent of its $10 million-plus war chest came from just 21 individuals. Bill Gates put up $3 million, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton gave $1.7 million, Vulcan Inc. (Paul Allen’s development company) was good for $1.6 million, and liberal entrepreneur Nick Hanauer donated $1 million. The father of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave $500,000.
The state’s influential teachers’ unions opposed I-1240, as did low-income groups, arguing that charter schools would skim money and take talented students from the public school system. The court challenge to the initiative was brought by the Late Friday surprise: Supreme Court says charter schools initiative is unconstitutional - Strange Bedfellows — Politics News: