Seattle School Board set to vote against charter school Initiative 1240
Tonight the Seattle School Board will decide on a resolution against Initiative 1240, the charter school measure, which polls show voters are likely to pass in November. Unfortunately, the Seattle School Board is likely to pass this resolution. This Board has shown an unwillingness to consider innovative changes to the way schools are run, and it strongly opposes any threat to its top-down, central power over the 93 schools in the district.
Charter schools shift power away from centralized bureaucracies and give school principals and teachers real freedom and flexibility to design school programs which best meet the needs of their students. It is this freedom from central district control, plus the talent of the teachers and principals in these schools, that has led to charter school success at erasing achievement gaps between minority and non-minority children in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles and East Palo Alto, Yuma, Arizona and elsewhere.
Under Initiative 1240, parents would be allowed the freedom to seek a charter school education for their children. Parents of two million students now attend charter schools in 41 states, and 610,000 students sit on charter school wait lists. In Seattle, parents are forced to enroll their children in their local neighborhood school, even if that school fails to successfully educate children.
If the Seattle School Board passes this resolution against charter school Initiative 1240, it is likely to be embarrassed on November 6th, when the larger public in Washington state passes Initiative 1240. Passing this resolution may jeopardize the ability of the Seattle School District to later win approval from the State Board of Education to become a charter school authorizer, as the Seattle School Board will have indicated its antipathy to charter schools.
I wonder if the Seattle School Board has fully considered the implications of being left behind as this charter school reform excites and lifts the hopes of parents and students across the state. Initiative 1240, to allow children the option to attend one of forty charter schools, represents the most promising education reform in Washington state in 30 years.
Comments
1240 is a good first step, but only a baby step
The Seattle Public Schools spends nearly $12k per pupil per year. More money would be nice but is not the core problem. We need to spend our money on teacher and principals, not the central administration. Don't you realize that there are only 2596 teachers out of 5089 total employees in the Seattle public school system?
Charter Schools
Has anyone at Washington Policy Center, or anywhere else for that matter, investigated to see who (or what organization) actually wrote this initiative?
What is the goal? Who will run each of the 40 new charter schools? Who will pay for the buildings, maintenance, overhead for the new buildings? Who and what organization has the CONTROL over these charter schools. The public is led to believe that each school will be independently set up-----but I'm not so sure.
Does anyone know??
SPS Board realizes ALL of our
SPS Board realizes ALL of our schools are underfunded. We need to fund proven solutions for all students, not unproven initiatives for a few.
Within the past 3 years Wa. State has cut $2.5B from education. The Wa. State Office of Fiscal Impact reports charters will have an indeterminant fiscal impact on our local public schools.
SPS has joined with the WSPTSA, El Centro de la Raza and other organizations representing 1 MILLION individuals.
1240 stinks from the head down and we all know it.