The WEA teacher union just announced that in a few months, by February or March, the state supreme court will hear its appeal in the union’s second lawsuit to close Washington’s charter schools. This past February King County Superior Court Judge John Chun upheld Washington’s new charter school law as constitutional, and the WEA union’s appeal from this decision is its last chance to close charter schools. The union’s effort is likely to fail, for legal and political reasons.

Charter schools give parents school choice and are popular. Free of union and bureaucratic restraints, and with only two years to help children catch up in school, Washington’s 10 charter schools are outperforming traditional schools. This powerful combination, of school choice for parents and school independence for educators, is showing charter school students and their families what excellence in education looks like.  

The WEA union fears public charter schools because they liberate parents, school leaders, teachers and local communities from having to learn or work at the traditional schools they have been assigned. This freedom and choice threatens the union, which depends upon forced school assignments, forced principal and teacher assignments, and the forced deduction of dues from teachers paychecks.

A little review is helpful. The people of Washington state approved charter schools in November of 2012 by passing a people’s initiative law, despite an aggressive WEA union campaign to misinform voters. The WEA union then attacked the law with its first lawsuit against charter schools. On September 4, 2015, the justices of the state supreme court, after taking campaign donations from the WEA union, ruled the funding of charter schools unconstitutional under this law.  

The unfair ruling from the supreme court was a bombshell to the families of the 1,200 students enrolled at one of Washington’s eight charter schools. These eight charter schools had just opened, and so many families applied that most of the schools had to conduct lotteries to select their students. Two-thirds of charter school students in Washington come from low-income, minority families. These families are often denied school choice, and typically their children are assigned by zip code to low-performing urban schools.  

Charter school families refused to accept the court’s bad ruling. They turned to Olympia. Mothers, fathers and children spoke to the media and before legislative committees. They wrote letters and signed petitions. They implored their representatives in the state legislature to save their charter schools.

On March 9, 2016, every Republican and 13 Democrats voted to save charter schools, passing a new charter school law, SB 6194. Governor Inslee allowed the bill to become law without his signature. 

This new charter school law responded to the supreme court’s concerns by designating public charter schools as operating separately from the common school system as an alternative to traditional common schools, and by creating a new funding source. See RCW 28A.720.020 (1)(b).

Ten public charter schools now serve 2,400 students and their families in the Puget Sound area and Spokane. Two more schools will open next fall, one in Tukwila and one in Walla Walla. Here is the list:  

Operating now: Excel Public Charter School (Green Dot) in Kent, Destiny Green Dot Charter School in Tacoma, Pride Prep Charter School in Spokane, Rainier Prep Charter School in Highline, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (Green Dot) in Seattle, SOAR Academy Charter School in Tacoma, Spokane International Charter School in Spokane, Summit Atlas Charter School in West Seattle, Summit Sierra Charter School in Seattle, Summit Olympus Charter School in Tacoma

Opening next Fall:

Impact Academy Charter School in Tukwila and Willow Public Charter School in Walla Walla

Public charter schools are the most promising, innovative education reform Washington state has seen in 25 years. The WEA union has already failed to close charter schools at the ballot box and in the state legislature. The union is likely to fail in this last-ditch effort to hurt charter school families. Even the powerful union is no match for parents who want better schools for their children.