WA: Buying the Court
When reformsters aren't busy trying to buy seats on school boards or flood a state with outside money to influence charter school legislation, sometimes they turn their money and attention to the courts.
Washington State has been a disappointment to many of its tech billionaires. Bill Gates and his friends had to spend several million dollars on several different tries to get a charter school law passed, and then the state court turned right around and declared that law unconstitutional(something about spending public monies on a private education-flavored business). There was some agitated freaking out and an attempt to do an end run around the ruling.
But there is of course a simpler solution. Pack the court with judges who are more agreeable. And so three judges in the Washington Supreme Court face challenges this year (the first such challenge since the 90s).
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| Center, leftmost, and bald guy with cute tie-- those are the targets |
This is not a coincidence. Court critic GOP State Rep Matt Manweller reached out to recruit all three of the candidates running in races, and he had the McCleary decisionin mind (that would be the case in which the court ended up fining the legislature for every day it failed to fully fund Washington State schools). Manweller suggested that the court CURMUDGUCATION: WA: Buying the Court:
