Bill Gates, Alice Walton, the Bezos family (of amazon.com) and a handful of other billionaires poured more than $10 million into a charter referendum in Washington State and won, but just barely.
For their investment, the state gets 40 charter schools over the next five years. Watch for new legislation and more millions to lift the cap.
Watch charter schools drain resources from public schools.
Watch the privatization movement pick up steam as Gates and Walton use their richest to persuade voters to abandon public schools for privately managed schools.
These are the latest results:
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Recount.
Not quite yet! Washington is an all mail-in state and the results are close enough that we really won’t know for sure until at least tonight, possibly later. King County (the most populous county in the state) is only about half counted, and “No” is leading there.
I am realistic but still a little bit hopeful, it’s not time for the wake just yet.
Not yet! Washington is an all mail-in state. “No” is leading in King County (the most populous county in the state) and votes there are only about half counted. We’ll have a much more complete picture tonight, but it’s still too close to call.
I’m so sorry, Washington. Keep up the fight.
It’s not over yet. There are still over 600,000 ballots to be counted and nearly 300,000 of those are from the two largest metropolitan areas. One of those counties is leaning no and the other is ever so slightly leaning yes. I’m still hopeful that the balance will change. Oh, and in WA, it’s not terribly uncommon for the voters to pass an initiative and for the courts to overturn it. Our I-1185 is definitely going to pass like several times before, but the courts keep determining the basic concept of the initiative illegal. I am hopeful that if the charter school initiative does pass, that the courts will determine that it violates the McCleary order to fully fund public education. I’m sure the lawsuit it waiting in the wings to be filed as soon as the election results are finally in.
On a positive note, the huge investment in Santa Clara failed miserably. The Charter Industry spent something like $250k (against the incumbent’s $10k or so) to launch a smear campaign against a woman who voted against the renewal of one charter school. They even went after her husband. She still won in a landslide.
In another encouraging election here in Los Altos, CA, a charter-backed candidate who was the biggest single fund raiser also went down in flames. Part of her strategy was to hide the fact that she was associated with the charter school. Despite winning major endorsements including that of our local paper-of-record, she lost by a huge margin.
I think we need to be realistic on these elections: you can’t spend next to nothing and expect to defeat billionaire-backed campaigns. But the truth gives us huge leverage–10 to 1 in many cases.
I didn’t know Amazon was one of the corporate sponsors of this. Sad. Can I buy books for my Kindle anywhere else?
The Bezos family (owners of amazon.com) was one of the major contributors to the charter campaign in Washington State.
The head of Netflix has contributed to privatization campaigns in other cities and states.
See here:
Alternate Kindle-ing
So you love your new Kindle. You’ve managed to find most of the books you want to read in the Kindle Store. Like most Americans, however, you want a little more.
Well, provided you can handle hooking up your Kindle to your PC using the USB cable it came with (yes, it’s not just for charging it) there’s a wealth of (legally) free Kindle books out there. Allow me to share some sources.
Alternative eBook sources for your Kindle
http://findersfree.com/entertainment/find-ebooks-kindle
Forgetaboutit–ditch the technology & use/support your local library & book store(s).
Unless you have a severe back injury or something similar, it’s not going to kill you to lug just one book around. (I travel on numerous short trips, read all the time when I’m gone, & manage to take a heavy book, not to mention a pile of newspapers.)
I agree…support your local book stores and libraries. But she already has a kindle and there is a way to get books without having to give more money to Amazon. Since I became aware of the money being given away to support privatization, I am weaning myself off all Amazon purchases.
We’re still hopeful. We are mail-in only statewide and ballots are still being collected, verified, and counted. –Our Governor hasn’t been chosen yet, and the two races attract similar voters to each side. We’ll know more around 4:30 today.