In refusing to reconsider its September ruling that public charter schools are unconstitutional and not entitled to receive public funds, the Washington State Supreme Court is bringing the state one step closer to shutting the door on promising educational opportunities for disadvantaged Washington students. Families in most other states have these options, and the charter sector continues to expand and thrive nationwide. Now that Washington students and families have seen what charters in our state can offer, however, it would be shameful to let that door close.
State leaders are still scratching their heads over the logic of the initial ruling, which hinged on a nineteenth-century definition of “common schools.” State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the ruling was illogical and overly broad. Many agreed, including four previous Washington State attorneys general and a bipartisan group of legislators. Even former Democratic Governor and Attorney General Christine Gregoire joined the amicus brief and said the ruling was “not fair, not right.” Some believe that the ruling was influenced by the legislature’s standoff with the court over Washington’s failure to fully fund K–12 education, which was mandated in the well-publicized McCleary decision. The court has been displeased with the legislature’s progress under McCleary and has been fining the state $100,000 per day until significant progress is made.
The court itself seemed more conflicted than in its September ruling. Four of nine justices (one more than in September) wrote that they were open to reconsidering all or some components of the ruling. And it removed an important footnote that cast doubt on whether charter schools could be considered part of the general and uniform system of public schooling. But it ultimately held to its view that, even though they may be public schools, charter schools can’t receive public funding because they are not overseen by elected school boards. Now the only option for upholding the voter-approved support for charter schools is a change in state law or a constitutional amendment. That’s a tall order.
The ruling’s most painful consequence is the way it will affect the families of the 1,200 students enrolled in Washington’s nine charter schools. These are mostly models of excellence serving kids whose previous schools were anything but.
Here is just a small sample of what I’ve seen these schools accomplish in their first few months of operation:
- One mother of a student at Summit Public Schools’ Sierra High School (in the heart of Seattle’s International District) told me that they had never before been in a school that cared as much about her daughter getting to college as she did.
- Another student at Summit Sierra had been bullied and labeled a problem at his former school in a wealthy neighborhood. At Sierra, this student is now a model of good behavior. Far from ending up in an alternative school with low academic expectations, he and all of this cohort have been promised that they will graduate prepared with the courses and skills—including statistics and advanced math, among others—to enter the University of Washington.
- Excel Public Charter School (in Kent, a poor ring suburb of Seattle) is offering coding, computational thinking, and instrumental music to kids who would never even have had access to that content, much less with such creative and talented teachers.
- Green Dot’s Destiny Charter Middle School opened with more than 20 percent of their students coming in with IEPs, most with emotional and behavior challenges. When there were behavior issues cropping up on the bus rides to school during the visit week before school opened, school leaders rode on the bus every day until the issues were resolved. The students started school the next week without incident and were welcomed with strong special education and counseling supports.
- Charters are enhancing, not destroying, district-run schools here. Two schools in Spokane are operating in close partnership with their local school district. The district superintendent was thrilled that the charter mechanism could provide some of her star principals more autonomy to serve students in new ways. The rest of the district intends to learn from their efforts.
These stories were only the start of what was to come. Unlike our best district schools, Washington’s charter schools would have kept replicating as long as students needed alternatives. After years of losing talented educators to states with charter schools, Washington was beginning to lure them back. Yet when Laurene Powell Jobs’s XQ high school redesign challenge was announced, laudable efforts to harness Washington’s tech innovation energy fizzled on news of the court ruling. Despite the interest and ideas in our state, we risk losing out to more forward-thinking locales.
The refrain from charter opponents has been that Washington already has plenty of avenues for innovation. But families in charters beg to differ. Since the initial ruling, people have been scrambling to figure out how these schools might continue to operate under current statutes. The options are bleak. They know these schools would not be able to maintain their focus and autonomies in the traditional system. They know what will happen to their kids if these schools close. They are desperate and angry.
Some say nothing can happen until the legislature fully funds education under McCleary. But waiting for resolution of an issue that has plagued our state for years would, in effect, hold charter students hostage. What about the high school freshmen who need to apply to college in two years?
Having studied charter schools since 1994, I know better than most that chartering offers no guarantee of quality. But Washington’s law was written to avoid mistakes other states have made.
I believe that the arc of history bends toward justice. Washington State cannot forever bury its head in the sand about its shocking achievement gaps and lagging innovation, which fly in the face of our state’s richness in intellectual capital. But that doesn’t help the students whose only chance is now.
All eyes are now on the Washington State Legislature, which could preserve and expand high-quality educational options with a new charter bill that will pass muster with the court. Families in Washington State have seen what’s possible and are not willing to go backwards. They are expecting leadership from politicians, and they are organizing. Opportunity isn’t just knocking. It’s halfway through the door.
Robin J. Lake has studied public charter schools and urban school system reforms since 1994. She is the director the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education and an affiliate faculty member at UW Bothell’s College of Arts and Sciences. She is also a Seattle Public Schools parent.
