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Key Facts

1. Washington state has a policy of discrimination that denies charter school families access to local operating, capital and start-up funding. 
2. On average local levies provide $2,300 per student, about 17 percent of operating revenue for most schools. 
3. These bills represent a step forward by providing up to $1,550 per student in state assistance to make up in part for the denial of local funding. 
4. HB 2788 and its companion bill SB 6550 have attracted strong bipartisan support.
5. Currently more than 3,500 students, mostly from minority, immigrant and low-income families, attend nine public charter schools in Washington. 
6. Charter schools are popular with parents (most have waiting lists) and use innovative student-centered approaches to learning with fewer union restrictions imposed on educators.
7. Five more public charter schools are scheduled to open in 2020, serving a further 1,000 students.

Introduction

HB 2788, and its companion bill in the Senate, SB 6550, represent a significant step towards ending Washington’s policy of funding discrimination against charter school families.  These bills have attracted strong bipartisan support in the state House and Senate. 

This Legislative Memo describes Washington’s public charter school program, describes the success and popularity of charters nationally and summarizes the ongoing political attacks against charter families.  It also reviews the state’s policy of funding discrimination and describes how HB 2788 proposes an equity-based solution that would provide fair treatment for all students. 

Background

Washington’s voter-approved public charter school law is the most innovative reform in the state’s public education system in a generation.  Passed in 2012 and confirmed by a bipartisan vote in the Legislature in 2016, the law provides parents with a choice of alternative public schools in communities where traditional schools fail to educate students. 

The powerful WEA union sought to kill the idea, filing two lawsuits in an effort get charters shut down.  These efforts failed.  The union position is still to close every charter school in the state, and WEA union executives continue their hostility toward charter school families, including efforts to deny equal funding to their children. 

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