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Common Dreams reports
The Seattle Times reports that
The ruling--believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country--overturns the law [I-1240] voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.
Teacher and author Mercedes Schneider offers more on the Act:
As is true of charter schools nationwide, the charters in Washington State (up to the current ruling) were eligible for public funding diverted from traditional public schools. Charter schools were approved via a November 2012 ballot initiative (I-1240, the Charter Schools Act) in which charters were declared to be "common schools" despite their not being subject to local control and local accountability. And also like America's charters in general, Washington's charters are not under the authority of elected school boards.
Thus, Washington voters had approved to give public money to private entities--a one-way street that provided no means for such funds to overseen by the public.
[...] The new ruling (pdf)[1] states that charters, "devoid of local control from their inception to their daily operation", cannot be classified as "common schools," nor have "access to restricted common school funding."
[...] "The Supreme Court has affirmed what we've said all along--charter schools steal money from our existing classrooms, and voters have no say in how these charter schools spend taxpayer funding," said Kim Mead, president of the [Washington Education Association], in a statement.
"Instead of diverting taxpayer dollars to unaccountable charter schools, it's time for the Legislature to fully fund K-12 public schools so that all of Washington's children get the quality education the Constitution guarantees them," Mead continued.
The Associated Press reports that the state had one charter school last year, and eight more have opened in the past few weeks.
I pity Ms. Schneider's students if she routinely starts sentences with conjunctions--especially consecutive, redundant conjunctions.
[1] I had trouble with the connection.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2015, @08:50AM
"Washington is a hopelessly liberal state."
Substitute the word "collectivist" for the word "liberal". Then play around with the definitions of "collectivist". Libs have a strong herding instinct. That is, they are afraid of individualism. They fear people who think differently. Thinking outside the box is an unhealthy, criminal trait. Can't have any charter schools teaching kids to think outside the box, now can we?
Of course, the problem with that line of thought is, the charter schools don't exactly teach kids to think outside the box. They teach the kids to think inside of a different box.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @09:09AM
"Washington is a hopelessly liberal state."
Translation: "Washington is a state with higher levels of income, education, and humanity"?
(Score: 0, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 07 2015, @12:22PM
Humanity? Sure, if you're a happy little libtard drone. Anything else, they'd happily force people into mandatory indoctrination camps. Which is pretty much exactly what just happened in WA.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Monday September 07 2015, @02:18PM
Libs have a strong herding instinct. That is, they are afraid of individualism.
today is labor day in the US but I didn't think it was backwards day, too.
the so-called conservatives are the ones you are thinking of. they are the ones who embrace religion, many of whom believe in quite literally. the anti-gay party is all about 'conservatives', the anti-women party is the same, the anti-jew and anti-moslem: all so-called conservative principles. social safetynets such as welfare or unemployment: definitely 'lib' principles and the 'conservatives' would love to get rid of all social services since their only reply is 'just lift yourself up by your bootstraps!'.
conservatives are anti-med MJ. they pretty much want to dictate how you will live and how you will pray (and the fact that you WILL pray, in their eyes, too; its not optional to them).
with all that I just listed, you still want to go on derping about how liberals are the ones who don't think outside the box and who are stuck thinking the same old patterns that have gotton us actual HARM, over the years?
liberals want change for the better. they are tired of business-as-usual. conservatives want to keep the 'old ways' the same with nothing new changing, no modernization, no new ideas. they reject new ideas like they reject anything newer than a 2000 yr old bit of storybook.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2015, @02:40PM
Maybe when I'm old and senile, you can convert me to national socialism. By then I'll have forgotten what the Nazi party was all about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2015, @02:34AM
Maybe when I'm old and senile, you can convert me to national socialism. By then I'll have forgotten what the Nazi party was all about.
Apparently you've already forgotten.
Let Pastor Martin Niemöller remind you of who the Nazis wanted to get rid of even more than jews:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 08 2015, @10:04PM
Re: National Socialist Workers Party
You forgot to counter with "Democratic People's Republic of North Korea".
There's also the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
Clearly, you can call your entity anything you choose.
It doesn't have to bear any relation to reality.
It's very telling when uninformed fools like Runaway1956 say that "national socialism" has something to do with Socialism.
Hint to the clueless:
The Nazis were Fascist. That's about as far from Socialism as it gets.
Another hint: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics wasn't Socialist either.
-- gewg_