Voters in Washington State have turned down charter proposals three times. Now the idea is up for a vote again on November 6.
The advocates have raised millions of dollars from a handful of supporters, none of whom are public school parents.
The opponents have raised about $200,000 from a broad array of individuals.
Who opposes the charter initiative 1240 in Washington State
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ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS AGAINST CHARTER SCHOOL INITIATIVE 1240-JOIN THE RANKS!
• Washington State PTA
• League of Women Voters
* State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn
• WASA – Washington Association of School Administrators
• WSSDA – Washington State School Directors Association Board
• Washington Education Association
* Renton School Board
* Seattle Public School Board
* Eatonville School Board
* Evergreen School Board
* Franklin Pierce School Board
* Goldendale School Board
* Moses Lake School Board
* Onion Creek School Board
• Educational Service District 113
* Riverview School Board, serving Carnation, Duvall and parts of unincorporated East King County.
* Renton School District
* Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, Jose Banda
• Japanese-American Citizens League Board
• Seattle-King County NAACP
• El Centro de la Raza
• Parents and Friends for Tacoma Public Schools
• Parents Across America – Seattle chapter
* Parents Across America- Tri-Cities chapter
* Parents Across America-Tacoma chapter
* Parents Across America- Spokane chapter
* Senator Adam Kline
• 1st District Democrats
• 5th District Democrats
* 10th District Democrats
• 11th District Democrats
* 21st District Democrats
• 22nd District Democrats
* 23rd District Democrats
* 27th District Democrats
• 32nd District Democrats
• 33rd District Democrats
• 34th District Democrats
• 36th District Democrats
• 37th District Democrats
* 39th District Democrats
* 40th District Democrats
• 41st District Democrats
• 43rd District Democrats
• 45th District Democrats
• 46th District Democrats
• 48th District Democrats
• King County Democrats
* Lewis Country Democrats
* Mason County Democrats
• Pierce County Democrats
* Skagit County Democrats
* Whatcom County Democrats
• Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle
* Kristine Lytton State Rep.40th District
• Citizens United for Responsible Education
• IUOE Local 609 (Operating Engineers)
• Association of Washington School Principals
• Northwest Progressive Institute
• UW Alumni Assn. Multicultural Alumni Partnership Board
* The Seattle Stranger
• Wayne Au, PhD in education, parent, and editor of Rethinking Schools
• James Bible, President, Seattle-King County chapter of NAACP
• Scott Heinze (Tacoma School Board Director)
• Charlie Mas, Seattle Schools Community Forum blog
• Barbara de Michele,former School Board member, Issaquah School District
• Sue Peters, Seattle Education blog
• John Stokes, Bellevue City Council member
• Melissa Westbrook, Seattle Schools Community Forum Blog****************************
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Who supports initiative 1240?
Bill Gates
The Bezos family (Amazon.com)
Paul Allen (Microsoft)
Alice Walton (Arkansas, Walmart)
and a few other assorted millionaires and billionaires
I’m deeply puzzled as to why, Diane, you oppose charters. Does that extend to private schools and home schooling too?
I do not oppose private education paid for with private funds nor do I question the right of parents to home-school their children. The issue is what government should pay for. I support public funding of public schools under democratic control, not by private boards or by for-profit corporations. Some charter schools are worthy of public support, such as those that seek out and educate children with high needs: charter schools for dropouts, charter schools for the autistic, charter schools for students who have difficulty learning in a public school. They should use their freedom to innovate and collaborate to strengthen public schools.
As someone who has worked in charters that were for-profit and non-profit(haha), please take my advice and tell everyone you know to block them at every turn. They are not providing a better innovative product. They have created clever ways to take public tax dollars and make money without any real accountability. The teacher turnover would make your head spin. Teachers do not get raises nor do they even have 401k. At present, they are awful. Why would you want to abdicate your power at the local level so some sleazebag in another state or city can make a profit off of your children? A total scam!! I’ve worked in a building where teachers did not have adequate supplies to teach, yet, the CEO and his family drove around very expensive cars, had a house in the most expensive suburb, and wore expensive suits. This is unacceptable.
I’m very surprised why you, Harlan, would support privatization. Do you support the privatization of all social services or just education?
This list says it all, doesn’t it?
Follow the money and you’ll find where the stench emanates from.
That is an impressive visual. So rotten.
It would make a wonderful ad.
There are more organizations and individuals listed at http://peopleforourpublicschools.org/endorsements.html.
There are more groups that join daily.
Dora
With a net worth of $66 B, Bill Gates spending $3 M on this little project impacts his family’s overall finances to the same degree that an expense of $3.51 affects a family with a net worth of $77,300 (the U.S. average in 2010). It may seem unbelievable but it’s true.
3,000,000 x 77,300 = 231,900,000,000 ÷ 66,000,000,000 = 3.51
I really hope the people of Washington defeat this proposal.
I hope so too, DeeDee, but there are too many people out there who feel as Romney does about teacher’s unions, and see charters as the perfect way to get rid of the WEA without understanding that we teachers ARE the union. Plus the union decided to focus only on the governor’s race and not invest in 1240 until recently, so this means the rich people have been airing misleading ads just like their misleading signature gathering, and there has been no rebuttal. Plus our unfair and unbalanced newspaper – the Seattle Times – is only running pro-charter op-eds (the last one they ran on the “con” side was sometime last year), so there are a lot of misinformed and uninformed voters. The 2 groups opposing I-1240 are small and operating with considerably less funding, so it’s mostly websites, word of mouth, door-belling, and signs. I think our other good legislative stuff will pass (like R-74), but with this one I just don’t know. It’s kind of scary to think that at this time next year our public school system in WA could already be in shambles as our scarce resources have to be spread even thinner with the advent of 40 new schools, each demanding start-up cost $$ from the state and pulling student dollars out of existing schools, meaning the local districts will have to make that up. Plus with the nasty parent trigger language meaning a few parents could destroy a whole school community – who knows what will happen there? My district could lose a couple of schools, and where would all the displaced students and teachers go who opt not to stay in the conversion, or who are not allowed to stay in the conversion? Our buildings are already full and our classrooms are already crowded. This will only make things worse.
If the privatizers purchase this election—which they might—FIRST we’re going to sue. Which won’t be hard to do. Anyone can see that I-1240 is completely unconstitutional.
It’s vile. It’s a Big Lie. And we’re immediately going to put together a movement to REMOVE it, just One Year Later!
Enjoy your Purchased “Victory”, privatizers; it won’t last forever.
Let’s begin an Education Defense Fund on this blog! I am willing to send money to help the cause.
The Ballot Initiative works two ways: We’re going to immediately strike back with our own initiative in 2013: One that will roll back this unconstitutional, school destroying law.
Just wait. It’s coming. We parents promise.