Washington State Charter School Ruling: Part One, Overview of Reaction to Ruling
There will be three threads to this topic.
- Overview of Reaction to the Ruling
- The Ruling Itself
- Current Overview
Simply put, many people - from the unscrupulous folks who wrote this law to those overseeing charter schools to those running charter schools - made a deliberate choice to gamble with children's academic lives. And they lost.
The people who wrote this law should get the lion's share of blame. The wording of the law very much mirrors what the ALEC group's template charter law looks like. It appears that almost no attempt was made to mold this law to fall within the boundaries of the Washington State Constitution. I'm certain that many well-paid lawyers reviewed the initiative and may have even warned the proponents of the initiative that there could be constitutional issue but no matter - the initiative went forward.
The Charter Commission, who I have generally lauded, dropped the ball here. They did not require approved charter schools to notify prospective parents - either via website or application form or public forum - that there was a lawsuit challenging the law and what the possible outcomes of the lawsuit could beincluding the overturning of the law.
The charter schools themselves could have done notification on their own. To the best of my knowledge, not a single one told prospective parents or, after they opened, told current parents about the lawsuit. (I believe there was at least one question brought up by a prospective parent at a forum - and the charter school rep waved it off - but that's not the same as notification.)
Finally to note, the Court chose to look only at the funding issue (rightly believing that if the funding wasn't there, the whole thing was moot). The Court stated, in their ruling, that the plaintiffs had multiple issues with the law but the Court was only considering one. However, there are at least two other legal issues within the law so even if somehow the Legislature "fixes" the funding, the law can be brought back into legal limbo.
If charter proponents want charters in Washington State, the best "fix" for this law is to start over entirely and write a law that is constitutionally sound. Not "strong" or "the best charter law in the Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State Charter School Ruling: Part One, Overview of Reaction to Ruling:
