Wayne Au: Washington State Charter ruling. Part II
Following the ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court that found the state charter law unconstitutional I posted an article that Professor Wayne Au wrote on charters in 2013.
Wayne was an appellant in the Washington suit.
Wayne contacted me and wanted to let me know that he would be writing a post-ruling article for the Washington Post.
That article appeared today in Valerie Strauss’ column.
Friday, Sept. 4, 2015, was a good day for me. Late that afternoon the Washington State Supreme Court issued an earth-shattering ruling for corporate education reformers: By a 6-3 decision, they determined that Washington State’s charter school law was unconstitutional. This felt like a personal victory because I was heavily involved in the fight against charter schools in Washington State. In the lead up to the 2012 election season, where Washington voters would decide on the legality of charter schools here through popular vote on Initiative 1240 (I-1240), I was a very vocal opponent of the initiative and voiced my concerns about charter schools in newspaper editorials, policy analyses, educational research, and public forums.Washington State citizens narrowly passed I-1240 by a 50.69 percent majority vote (winning by roughly 41,000 of the over 3,000,000 votes cast), making charter schools law here. In response to the new charter law, I was asked to join a group of individuals and organizations as plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of I-1240, where, in addition to lending my name to the suit, I provided expert advice and research in support of the legal arguments.When the Washington State Supreme Court announced its decision overturning I-1240 as unconstitutional, I was elated. As anWayne Au: Washington State Charter ruling. Part II. | Fred Klonsky:
