Lisa Macfarlane has just written this excellent piece about education reform in Washington state.  I think you will be impressed with Lisa's well-reasoned analysis of the issue:

Shake, Rattle and Roll

By Lisa Macfarlane, Democrats for Education Reform, Washington State Director

Education reform ground is finally shaking in Washington State and you can now see some fault lines. 

After a lively exchange between one of the state's largest Democratic donors and strongest public school advocates, Nick Hanauer, and the President of the Washington Education Association, Mary Lindquist, the Chair of the State Democratic Party, Dwight Pelz, weighed in with a spirited defense of the status quo. No surprise there, since D's in our state get an awful lot of money from the WEA. But Mr. Pelz's open hostility to education reform was special. Mr. Pelz told the Seattle Times, "Ed reform is like the weather, if you hang around, it will change." 

And then there's our Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire with her hardheaded unscientific opposition to charter schools and her treat to veto any charter school bill that gets to her desk. "I have told them I will veto it. I will veto it," said Gregoire.  

Governor Gregoire does not seem to care that 41 other states have charter schools and she must have missed the memo from President Obama and his Democratic administration promoting their strong support for the expansion of high quality public charters. Why would our Democratic President do such a thing, our state party leaders might ask? Because there is an urgent need to accelerate student achievement in under-represented groups, and the research shows that public charter schools serving low-income, urban students consistently outperform traditional public schools. 

You'd think Washington State coming in 32nd place (out of only 36 competing states) in the national Race to the Top competition would be a bit of a wake-up call. Or the fact that Washington is one of 16 states making limited or no progress in boosting high school graduation rates.

What exactly is so threatening about a pilot program that would allow 10 new public charter schools to serve educationally disadvantaged kids? There would still be 2,368 traditional public schools in operation. Are we afraid that 10 public charter schools will be too successful?

To the union and democratic party leaders who have dug their heels in on the charter school issue, here's my burning question: "who gave you the right to say that people with kids in poor performing schools don't have the right to give their kids a better opportunity?"

Be honest. This is really a fight about parental choice and local control. Fortunately for the kids in South Seattle where African American students have a 1 in 10 chance of passing 5th grade science standards, a 1 in 5 chance of passing 4th grade math standards, and a 1 in 2 chance of passing 3rd grade reading standards, we have a courageous leader in Representative Eric Pettigrew, the only African American serving in the Washington State legislature. He is insisting that kids in his district get better educational choices. Now.

Speaking of choice, why don't we let the voters decide this fall about whether they'd support a small pilot program for public charter schools? Lawmakers could pass a bill with a referendum clause adding the issue to the November ballot - making the Governor's opposition irrelevant.

Earlier this session, House Democrats insisted that they couldn't even let a charter school bill come to a vote, let alone pass one, because the issue was too important and had to be decided on by voters. So let's see how House Democrats feel about a referendum charter school measure that goes straight to the ballot. Any bets?

Lisa Macfarlane used to be a charter school opponent; she managed the phone bank in the 1996 NO charter school campaign and voted against the prior ballot measures. She is the Washington State Director for Democrats for Education Reform, a co-founder of the League of Education Voters, a past President of Schools First (Seattle's levy and bond committee), the sponsor of two statewide education funding initiatives, and a PCO in the 46th District. Read more about Lisa here.