What makes a public school public? Washington state court finds charter schools unconstitutional
Washington State’s Supreme Court has become the first in the nation to decide that taxpayer-funded charter schools are unconstitutional, reasoning that charters are not truly public schools because they aren’t governed by elected boards and therefore aren’t accountable to voters.
The opinion, released Friday, weeks after the school year began, breaks with high courts in several other states that had faced similar cases challenging charter schools’ legality. It means the future is uncertain for the state’s nine charter schools and the 1,200 students who attend them.
But the ruling also highlights a question that has spurred much debate in education circles as charter schools — which are funded with taxpayer dollars, but run by independent organizations — have expanded rapidly during the past two decades: What makes a public school public?
Opponents of charter schools have long argued that the schools are private because they don’t have to answer to the public and in some states aren’t subject to key rules that apply to government agencies, such as open meetings and public records laws. They can be operated by for-profit companies; can use taxpayer dollars to buy buildings that are then owned privately; and in many states they are considered private employers.
“The public has no voice in management or oversight of charter schools; they are private with private boards,” Diane Ravitch, an education historian and prominent critic of charter schools, wrote in an e-mail. “Where public money is involved, public oversight is necessary.”
Charter school advocates argue that the definition of public schools has to be more expansive to include those that are trying to make good on the democratic ideal of equal access to a good education. Enormous achievement gaps between the nation’s poor and affluent children are proof that elected school board members, distracted by politics, have largely failed to serve the nation’s most disadvantaged children.
Charter schools are run, in most cases, by nonprofit boards of directors. They are free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools, and in return they must meet academic achievement targets or risk closure.
“To us, the difference between traditional public schools and public charter schools is the notion that you’re bringing in outside entities to run schools free of the political process that often hampers school districts’ ability to make What makes a public school public? Washington state court finds charter schools unconstitutional - The Washington Post: