The powerful WEA union, joined by other unions and a group of school administrators, has filed a new lawsuit against charter school children. The lawsuit says charter schools divert money from traditional schools. This is untrue.    

First, charter schools are not separate from traditional schools. Charter schools are part of the public school system.  Like Running Start, vocational schools, and other alternative schools, charter schools offer a limited number of options to traditional schools. To say charter schools drain money from traditional schools is like saying Public School X drains money from Public School Y, which is not true.       

Second, money for charter schools does not come from school district budgets. If a student voluntarily chooses to go to a charter school, the money the state and federal government provide goes to the charter school to educate that student. The money does not belong to the school district, to school administrators or to the WEA union.

It is ironic the WEA union now claims charter schools drain money from school districts, when not long ago the union said districts have a “huge amount of money.” The WEA union convinced the Legislature to refuse $38 million in federal Title I funds to avoid federal teacher evaluation rules, saying that districts have a “huge amount of money.”   

Traditional schools do have a huge amount of money, especially when compared to the money charter schools get. Over 2,000 traditional schools educate 1 million students in Washington, receiving about $12.6 billion in 2015-16 from all state, local and federal sources, at $12,000 on average per student, plus capital funding for school buildings. By contrast, nine charter schools educating 1,170 students received $10.8 million, or $10,200 per student in state and federal funds. Charter schools receive no local funding or capital funding. Only 40 charter schools can open under current law. Charter schools are a tiny fraction of public education in Washington, and they are successfully educating children for significantly less money than traditional schools.    

Money is being diverted away from traditional school classrooms, but not by charter schools. In 2016-17 the bloated bureaucracy of Seattle Public Schools, which spends $15,000 per student, delivers only $443 million of its $790 million budget to school classrooms, withholding 44 cents of every dollar for the district bureaucracy. The WEA union also diverts money away from public education. Union executives collect about $1,000 a year from every teacher in the state because union membership is mandatory in traditional schools. This provides the WEA union an annual budget of $34 million.

Last spring the WEA union hoped the supreme court’s flawed ruling in the union’s first lawsuit would close Washington’s charter schools. The union told the state Legislature that charter schools were diverting money from traditional schools, among other falsehoods. Yet twelve Democrats and all Republicans swept this misinformation aside, and voted to save charter schools, in a stunning victory for charter schools and a spectacular loss for the union.

Parents want access to charter schools. Children love their charter schools. Charter schools serve mostly low-income and minority children, and early results show they are successfully educating children. As the vote in the Legislature proved, charter schools are popular, and public sympathy is strongly in favor of charter schools.

Accounts of charter school success are moving hearts and minds across the nation. Just last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that New York City charter schools are significantly outperforming traditional city schools. Here in Washington, mean-spirited lawsuits about money and union power will not deter a public determined to offer charter schools to the children and families who want them.