Washington Charter School Ruling May Close My Son's School

On Friday the WA State Supreme Court ruled that the existence of the Washington State Charter Schools is unconstitutional. What these means for the 1200 students currently enrolled in those schools (including my son) is not clear.

It seems there needs to be a legislative fix made to either the I-1240 law language, or to the 1907 law cited by the court in their ruling. I wrote a letter to Governor Inslee and our District 6 legislative representatives encouraging them to get to work on finding a solution that will keep the rug from being pulled out form under 1200 kids, their families, and teachers due to this ruling.

Here's the letter:

Governor Inslee,

Please convene a special session of the legislature to save the existence of charter schools authorized under I-1240 and supported by a majority of Washingtonians.

I am writing today in regards to the Washington State Supreme Court decision handed down Friday afternoon that ruled that the current implementation of the Washington State Charter School initiative is unconstitutional. My son, Ari, is a Kindergartener at Spokane InternationalAcademy (SIA), one of the affected schools in Spokane. He and his 170 schoolmates are entering their third week of classes and by all accounts he is truly enjoying his first experience in school. We have spent the weekend alternately anxious and angry at the implications the recent ruling has for our family.

The scope of this ruling, and the timing of its release, only reinforces the perception of some that the school system in our state is not working for the benefit of children. This is the type of drama and bureaucratic entanglement that many families wished to avoid by sending their children to charter schools. The amount of schadenfreude and gleeful hand clapping by the WEA and other plaintiffs in the case sickens me. In their official release the WEA spends nine paragraphs talking about how they are victorious and vindicated through this ruling. Nowhere will you see any mention of their concern for the 1200 families with students already attending these schools and the impacts on those children. The state government needs to find a solution that will allow these schools to continue to operate and minimize the disruption to the students who have already begun classes across the state. The State Supreme Court had two years to rule on this case and could have put a hold on the development of these schools until the case was settled. The course of action they took stands to have the most disruptive impact to the students currently attending the approved charter schools.

Our family was not looking for an alternative to regular public school when it came time to enroll Ari this spring. In fact, by any measure, Ari was slated to attend one of the better public schools in Spokane. It wasn’t until we attended a school fair put on by District 81 in Spokane that we were introduced to some of the alternative school programs available. In addition to the two public charter schools, District 81 offers more than 10 other “alternative” programs for students. How are these charter schools any different than the Montessori, APPLE, or Bryant/TEC programs offered by the District? It seems that there should be a fairly simple administrative solution to aligning the “unconstitutional” charter schools with these other programs.

What drew us to Spokane International Academy was their vision to form a school that addresses many of the long-standing issues that the public school system lacks the will or the ability to address more broadly. SIA takes the basic standard public school requirements, and then it adds:

·      A longer school day,

·      Foreign language classes from Kindergarten,

·      Extended weekly professional development time for their instructors,

·      1-to-1 technology in the classrooms,

·      Service learning and community building programs.

They have based their school on the Cambridge Curriculum, a curriculum used in over 150 countries around the world that aligns with US Common Core standard, and have committed to taking the same state-required tests (SBAC) as other public schools. Before the school was allowed to operate it had to be authorized by both the State Board of Education and the District 81 School Board. Their charter is only good for 5 years before they have to be renewed. How often do regular public schools get that kind of make or break review? Critics’ calls of lack of oversight seem to be overstated. Additionally, the student body for SIA was selected through an open lottery and as a result, SIA serves a broader range of socio-economic, ethnic, and educational levels than standard charter schools and even most public schools in our area. It is yet another reason we felt good about placing our child at the school.

SIA is not a corporate takeover of public education as stated by opponents of charter schools, it is a non-profit started by a group of local teachers that had the vision and dedication to create a school that better aligns with professional best practices in education and we believe will develop our children into global citizens with a broader perspective and respect for different cultures and worldviews that will be critical in the 21^st century. The families that were selected to be part of this inaugural group are committed to being actively engaged in their children’s education and are willing to take a risk on a new model to see if these additional elements provide a more rich and effective experience for their children. SIA is a laboratory and the results of the experiment will provide great information about how other public schools in our state can be improved for the benefit of all our children.

Please help us solve this issue and bring the legislature back to find a solution to this crisis.

Sincerely,

Theodore D. Teske

Spokane, WA