Help your friends fight off the charter billionaires in Washington State.
Tomorrow is Money Blast Day:
It’s here – Money Blast Day in Washington state to fight off I-1240 that would establish charter schools here. (Washington is one of just nine states that does not have them and we have voted – three times – and said no to charters.)
But Bill Gates and his wealthy friends just infused the Yes side to the tune of $3M (they are up over $8M total). It’s a David and Goliath fight that we intend to win but we need help.
The No On 1240 campaign is having a MONEY BLAST all day on October 11th to raise money for this fight that has national implications. We have an angel donor that will match the first 50 people who donate $100.
Please help us draw this line in the sand against charters, their poor outcomes, their bad ramifications and the insanity that is the “conversion/trigger” charter embedded in I-1240. (This would allow a charter to use a petition signed by parents OR teachers to take over ANY existing school, failing or not. It would be the harshest conversion charter trigger in the country.)
Please help us say NO to charters and NO to I-1240.
Bill Gates just added another $2 million, and Alice Walton of the Walmart family just dropped another $1 million.
I am donating $100. Will you donate whatever you can?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m in for $100 also, makes me sick to watch the money grab.
Amazing…http://www.seattleschild.com/article/the-charter-school-vote reporting that initiative supporters had raised $4.6 million by mid September, most of it from Bill Gates, Arkansas-based Alice Walton (whose fortune comes from Walmart), the Bezos family, entrepreneur Nick Hanauer, and other individuals. By comparison, the opposition to I-1240 had raised a meager $240,000, mainly from the Washington state teachers union and the Seattle union for non-teaching school employees. I’m scared to death on this initiative. My hope is that if the initiative passes and Dem. Jay Inslee is elected Governor, a lawsuit will come fast to stop the insanity and the Governor will drag feet on moving this forward.
More to the point, Wasington’s Initiative 1240 is by far THE most fiscally irresponsible pieces of work to come down the pike in years. Not only does it have less oversight and less transparency over how our tax dollars would be spent than the previous three charter measures that the voters wisely rejected, it has less oversight, less transparency, less control and less accountability than any Tim Eyman initiative has. Consider: No performance audits. Unacceptable (it does have financial audits. Big whoop!). No elected charter commission — it’s appointed. Unacceptable. No prohibition against “nonprofit” charter schools contracting out any, or all, of their operations to for-profit “education management organizations.” Unacceptable. Does anyone with two brain cells to rub together think they’ll be able to go into a meeting of one of these “education management organizations,” like they can to their local school board meetings, and ask to see their line item budget? They’ll have you hauled off in handcuffs for trespassing, and it will all be legal under 1240.
And if you live in the WA,, you know that saying 1240 is worse than anything Tim Eyman has conjured up means something.
Big money paid for “reform” in Lousiana as well. Michael Bloomberg was one of the biggest donors. Don’t understand a New York mayor’s interest in Louisiana school children….. Couldn’t be be the money side of things could it?
Makes one wonder if Bloomberg is going to “invest” in the business of Louisiana’s charter schools (perhaps starting his own company?)
when he leaves office. Horrible thought, that.
I hope that the “meager $240,000” was not raised mainly from “the Washington state teachers union and the Seattle union for non-teaching school employees.” Where are the parents? They obviously voted against the previous charter legislation. We all know that the future of public education depends on community support.
Teachers, much less parents, have no clue what is going on. Charters are being billed as what will save education. How can that be a bad thing, right? Whenever I bring up what is happening in other parts of the country regarding charters and the privatization of public schools, people (even those with whom I teach) look at me like I’m crazy. If 1240 passes, and charters are permitted in WA, we’ll have an extreme case of “I had NO CLUE” from the public, once they realize what they’ve lost.
One of our sons is about to move to Seattle. He is single, so the school issue won’t be on his radar. I don’t think he will have been there long enough to vote, but I will clue him in, so he can advocate against 1240 if possible.
I would partially disagree with statement above by asking where’s the evidence that “teachers have no clue as to what’s going on?” Washington Education Association’s board of directors, representing nearly 82,000 public school educators, voted last month to oppose I-1240. That vote got back to my husband at his high school job right quick. I suspect teachers are more fluent on this than we give them credit for.
That said, I *would* agree that citizens are largely silent on this, at least looking at the money trail and that makes us rightfully ask, “Do they have a clue?”. After all, Yes on 1240 has raised a grand total of nearly $8.2 million to date, including $2.7 million in out-of-state contributions; while People for Our Public Schools and No on 1240 have raised a combined total of $276,595.13, with a large chunk — $150,000 — coming from the Washington Education Association (WEA). It’s worrisome, I agree. But, but, but… that said, opponents of charter schools have been outspent big time before. In 2000, Initiative 729 failed at the ballot box, despite a staggering fundraising disparity of $3.4 million in support to a mere $386 opposed. (Teacher pay and class size initiatives were also on the ballot that year, and getting more attention from traditional charter school opponents.) And in 2004, after the *Legislature* (no less) passed a charter school bill, *voters* rejected the referendum to approve it, R-55, despite the fact that sponsors outspent opponents by a three-to-one margin ($3.8 million to $1.3 million). So…hmmm….something is going on here. Washingtonians have felt strongly against charters and turned ’em down three times before despite deep pocketed promotion and a legislature that approved them! Perhaps that track record, the crowded downstate ballot and the Presidential election year accounts for a sense of silence by citizens and parents? What we do know is the WEA has not put big money into opposing I-1240 but into backing Democratic Congressman, Jay Inslee, for Governor. I think this is a conscious WEA strategy to make sure our state gets an anti-charter school Governor that, if I-1240 passes, will see to it that moving implementation forward will be slow as molasses while at the same time making sure a lawsuit is filed against 1240 challenging its constitutionality. This still does nothing for my psychic anxiety about it however…so if you have that I do too. I’ve been super loyal on my FB feed about my support for Ref 74 that, if passed, would approve marriage equality passed by our legislature last spring. That in itself appears initially risky since Jay Inslee voted in Congress to Offer every parent Charter Schools and public school choice. (Aug 2000) but then was rated 100% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes. (Dec 2003) Well, well, well, something happened between 2000 and 2003 I’d say. Why the WEA support now? Well, Jay talked about his opposition to charter schools and his support for collective bargaining to the Washington Education Association on May 18, 2012. The group held its annual convention at the Spokane Convention Center. The WEA PAC has contributed $850,000 of the $5 million raised for his campaign, while the National Education Association has put in another $500,000, according to reports filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission. The political action committee gets its cash from donations by teachers, about a third of whom support the political activities of their union. That makes the state and national teachers’ unions the biggest supporters of anti- McKenna ads after the Democratic Governors Association.
So tonight, my disappointment is I’m not seeing my LGBT supporters (gay and straight) that are all on FB and hot and bothered on passing Ref 74 engage on this important issue. The silence is deafening and that’s got me pissed. And now, I’m going to eat a cookie to calm down.
Thanks for the support from the No On 1240 campaign. A win here would draw a line in the sand and send a BIG signal to the rest of the country. We hope it will inspire parents, community members and even states to say:
– Where are these great academic outcomes?
– Where is the accountability and why is it so tough to close low-performing charters?
– Who is making a profit off our public education system?
Washington State has said NO three times and we will again in November.
Thank you to Diane and all our supporters!
Thanks so much for posting this, Diane! We do indeed need all the help we can get here in Washington State.
If there was ever a modern-day “David Versus Goliath” story, this would qualify. The financial disparity between the pro and anti sides is astonishing.
I’ve heard estimates that the anti-charter side is being outspent by as much as 50 to 1. Fifty To One! (The lowest estimate I’ve seen reported anywhere is 30 to 1.)
So we’re extremely grateful for any support we receive. We’ll never be able to equal the resources of our opponents, but we’re confident that if all Washington citizens hear both sides of this debate, that the majority will vote against this very risky and radical initiative.
Even people and organizations that would normally support charters—like the Washington State PTA—have come out against Initiative 1240; its provisions are far too extreme. Parts of I-1240, like its ultra-aggressive “trigger”, go far beyond what has ever been tried before in any state.
However, I’m all too aware of the acrimony that often accompanies this contentious issue. And I know that doesn’t please anyone, on either side of this divide. Friendships have been strained, professional relationships have been frayed, and education activists who were once united on issues like school funding, are no longer speaking.
I’d much rather be spending my free time this fall with my third grader, watching postseason baseball together, and helping him discover new books, science concepts, and classic films, than blogging, telephoning, doorbelling, putting up yard signs and going to meetings. And I’d rather all the money being spent on this election battle—almost all of it is on the pro-charter side—be used to actually improve the education of at least some of Washington’s children.
But this was forced upon us and like many parents, I had no choice but to get involved and fight back. I don’t want my state to take that first step down the road towards privatization of our schools. I’ve seen what this has done to parts of California, New Jersey, Michigan, Maine, Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Louisiana—especially Louisiana—and many other states that now can’t reverse it.
Yet, I’m still a big fan and admirer of Bill Gates, despite my disagreements with him on this vital issue. Gates is more responsible than any other individual for the significant growth of the Seattle and Washington State economies over the past two decades. Clearly, his success has had a very positive effect on every business in our state, from small companies like my own, to tech giants in their own right, like Amazon and Expedia.
His decision, back in the 80’s, to locate his business here in the Seattle area—in what was then often seen as an isolated, rainy, far-from-everything backwater—changed life profoundly, for the better, for everyone living in this region.
While building my first business, back in the 90’s, it was very common for prospective clients to say, “Oh, you’re from Seattle, where Microsoft is…okay, I WOULD like to meet with you when you’re here in New York next month…”
So, I harbor no animosity towards Bill Gates or anyone else who is trying to bring charters to our state. I just feel he’s doing the wrong thing regarding this very important issue.
I only wish that all of us, particularly those who are parents of children in Washington’s public schools, were provided with equal access to the eyes and ears of the public before this crucial election. It’s terrible to think that such a far-reaching change could happen in our state and be determined solely by a few individuals—none of whom have made the ultimate “investment” in our public schools: the education of their own sons and daughters.
So well stated. Truly superb.
The Money Blast is starting to work. Thank you to folks in New Jersey, New York and Utah for helping Washington avoid the charter insanity and the first parent trigger that wouldn’t require a school to be “failing”! Hope people from more states will show their support as well!
Dorothy Neville
Treasurer, No On 1240