Seattle Schools Community Forum: About Three Days

Seattle Schools Community Forum: About Three Days:
About Three Days

I've been talking a lot about charter schools lately and both Charlie and I have been speculating what will happen to them due to the Supreme Court's final ruling that the Washington State charter law is unconstitutional.  But I did have an epiphany this morning as the thunder woke me up. 

(I'll again state - I'm not a lawyer but I think the issue has been made clear by the Court.) 

It's really just three days left that charter schools in the state of Washington will exist as charter schools.  How do I know this?

One, Monday the 14th is the likely cut-off date for state funding for the schools themselves AND their authorizers.  (I think I understand that the charters have enough state money to finish their December school month.) If a charter school has no state funding and no state oversight, under the current charter law, it'snot a charter school. And, to boot, there is no charter law left.

Two, the Supreme Court struck down the ENTIRE law.  There's a new video out by state senator Joe Fain where he explains the Supreme Court decision.  To his credit, he gets it mostly right but then, at the end, glibly tries to explain how the legislature can "fix" it. 

In the video, he explains that the Court could have ruled on the case and separated out the funding issue while still allowing the rest of the law to stand.But they didn't. They said no to the whole thing because (I think) they believed that if the funding isn't there, nothing else could stand either. 

That is the crux of the situation. 


Now the students surely do need educational services.  What the charters - allof them apparently, according to the Charter Commission's Executive Director, Joshua Halsey - are choosing is to guide their students to an ALE program yet to be set up in Mary Walker School District.  MWSD will get the state funding Seattle Schools Community Forum: About Three Days: