Peter Greene has a solution to the Washington State charter school problem. We know that charter advocates are very upset because the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools sent out an “urgent” notice, calling on its allies to write to Washington Governor Jay Inslee and urge him to call the legislature into special session to keep the state’s handful of charter schools open. This doesn’t seem to be a good solution, because neither the governor nor the legislature can override a decision by the state’s highest court, which said that charter schools were unconstitutional because they are not “common schools” controlled by an elected school board. In other words, contrary to the state constitution, they are not public schools and cannot use money designated for public schools.

Peter Greene says there is a simple solution to solve this issue.

Just submit to being overseen by an elected school board.

Act like the public schools you claim to be. Make your finances and operation completely transparent to the public.

And allow yourselves to be overseen by an elected school board instead of a collection of individuals who are not answerable to the voters or the taxpayers.

I mean– what’s more important to you? Providing a strong educational alternative for those 1,200 students, or holding on your ability to do whatever you want without having to answer to the public? Is it so important to you that you not be accountable to the public that you would rather engage in timeconsuming rewrites of state law, or even just close your doors, rather than let yourself submit to transparent and open oversight by a group of citizens elected by the very taxpayers whose money you use to run your school?

Here is the decision. Read it for yourself.

This is a big win for parents and public schools.

Mercedes Schneider obtained a copy of the Supreme Court decision in Washington State that found public funding of charters to be unconstitutional.

She analyzes it here.

Washington State’s Supreme Court ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional.

“After nearly a year of deliberation, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late Friday afternoon that charter schools are unconstitutional.

“The ruling overturns the law voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.

“Eight new charter schools are opening in Washington this fall in addition to one that opened in Seattle last year…

“Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that charter schools aren’t “common schools” because they’re governed by appointed rather than elected boards.

“Therefore “money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools,” Madsen wrote.

“The ruling is a victory for the coalition that filed the suit in July 2013, asking a judge to declare the law unconstitutional for “improperly diverting public-school funds to private organizations that are not subject to local voter control.”

The Background:

The state held four referenda on charters. Voters rejected them three times–in 1996, 2000, and 2004–but in 2012, Bill Gates , Paul Allen, Alice Walton, the Bezos family, and a handful of other billionaires created a fund of more than $10 million (correction by reader: $17 million) to support another charter vote, called I-1240. The billionaires outspent the opposition in the election by 50:1. The measure barely passed by a margin of 1%. Stand for Children stood with the billionaires.

Opponents included:

“The League of Women Voters of Washington opposed the measure, as did the Washington Education Association and the Washington Association of School Administrators. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been opposed to all charter schools since 2010, and, although the National Parent Teacher Association conditionally supports charter schools, the Washington State PTA opposed I-1240 for not meeting “criteria for local oversight.” A variety of Democratic organizations and officials opposed I-1240.”