It’s back to court for charter schools in Washington State
The Washington State Supreme Court deemed charter schools unconstitutional in 2015 and yet the charter schools remained open on the promise of private money supporting them. The $14M never materialized and instead the State Superintendent funneled money surreptitiously into charter schools by way of a small school district in a corner of the state, the Mary Walker School District.
In the meantime, legislators who ignored the consequence of not adequately funding public schools forged ahead with great hubris in what they thought would be a way around using public funds to keep the charter schools open by using state lottery money. This was called the Charter School Act.
There are many holes in the new law and recent developments are pertinent to the new lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are:
League of Women Voters, Washington State
El Centro de la Raza
Washington Education Association
Washington Association of School Administrators
International Union of Operating Engineers 609
Aerospace Machinists Union DL 751
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Washington Federation of State Employees
American Federation of Teachers, Washington
Teamsters Joint Council No. 28
Pat Braman, on her own behalf
Donna Boyer, on her own behalf and on behalf of her minor children
Sarah Lucas, on her own behalf and on behalf of her minor children
The defendant is:
State of Washington
These are the basics:
After the Charter School Act was approved by the state legislators, it went to Governor Inslee’s desk to be signed. The Governor did not sign the bill but allowed it to pass into law. This is rare and the last time it happened was in 1981.
The Charter School Act went into effect on April 3, 2016.
On May 27, 2016, the Plaintiff’s made a demand that the State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is considering a run for Governor, investigate the constitutionality of the It’s back to court for charter schools in Washington State | Seattle Education: