Olympia charter school rally, February 25, 2016

Washington’s public charter schools are enrolling new students for the fall of 2017. This will mark the third year public charter schools are offering Washington families a new option for learning. The first year charter schools opened, in the fall of 2015, demand was so high most of the schools held lotteries to decide which children could attend. Today Washington’s public charter schools are educating more than 1,800 students. The eight existing schools are located in Seattle, Kent, Highline, Tacoma, and Spokane. Most of them are adding a grade level in the fall. Links to their websites can be found here.   

Although charter schools are popular with the public, in the fall of 2015 the state supreme court tried to close down charter schools, just days after they first opened. In a lawsuit brought by the state’s powerful WEA teachers union, the judges, rather cruelly many thought, announced that public charter school funding was unconstitutional.  

Charter school families and teachers turned to their legislators for help. They traveled to Olympia to explain why they love and want to keep their charter schools. One 10-year-old girl said “all the kids here love it….I don’t see why you would want to shut that down for kids.”

Lawmakers listened. In the spring of 2016 they passed SB 6194 to save public charter schools, a bill which complied with the court ruling by identifying an alternate source of funding. While Governor Inslee said he would not sign it, he agreed to let it become law without his signature.

Then, in August of 2016, the WEA filed a second lawsuit against charter school families. Teachers at traditional schools must each pay the union about $1,000 a year, shifting roughly $34 million in education funding to union bank accounts. Forcing students and teachers out of public charter schools would be a financial windfall for the union.

This time the WEA’s mean-spirited and selfish attack has been blocked by the courts. Last month, on February 17^th, King County Judge John Chun decided this second lawsuit lacks merit, and that charter school funding is constitutional. WEA teachers union executives, led by union president Kim Mead, have not yet appealed this decision. Charter school families are hoping Ms. Mead will let Judge Chun’s ruling stand, and that she will decide to stop trying to hurt their children.   

Public charter schools are delivering on the promise of providing a high-quality, fair and equitable education to all students. Teachers and leaders of these schools are helping their students catch up in learning, as shown by 2015-16 academic test results posted here. For example, Seattle’s Summit Sierra, part of the highly successful Summit charter school network, was identified by Business Insider as one of the 14 most innovative high schools in the world.  Summit Sierra uses an innovative technology to allow students to proceed at their own pace, with individual student support from teachers. In just one year, Summit Sierra students have outperformed the national average by 20 percent in reading and more than doubled the national average in math on the MAP test.

Officials are responding to demand by opening three new charter schools this fall, two in Seattle and one in Walla Walla. They are:

1. Summit Atlas, another Summit school, is opening a 6^th and 9^th grade this fall, growing to 6th - 12th grades, at 9601 35^th Avenue SW, Seattle, website here.                         
2. Green Dot, part of the renowned Green Dot network, is opening a 6^th grade this fall, growing to 6th - 12th grades, at 6020 Rainier Avenue S, Seattle, website here. 
3. Willow Public School in Walla Walla is opening a 6^th and 7^th grade this fall, growing to 6th - 8th grades, website here.  

In the meantime, the State Commission is considering new charter school applications. State law allows up to 40 public charter schools. As word spreads about the success of Washington’s public charter schools, more and more families will want to send their children to these high-performing schools.