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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 Joe Desertrat on Monday September 07 2015, @06:28PM
I think that you've helped my argument, more than anything. So, minority neighborhoods have their schools closed, and their children bussed miles away, just to sit in class with kids who are not minorities?
I think you are missing his point, either by misunderstanding or otherwise. The schools getting closed are in poorer districts, most likely urban areas higher in minority students, and those schools are getting closed because they have the least political advocacy and when funding gets cut they as a result are the losers. It has nothing to do with an attempt to integrate minorities with others. He further points out that the students are hurt by the fact their day, as a result of busings, is longer and they lose sleep and study time as a result. The goal should be to fund their local schools and keep them open.
Charter schools are not a part of this goal, they are simply part of the overall attempt made to privatize public services, not because the privatized versions are better, they rarely if ever are, but because it funnels public money into private pockets. The goal of charter schools is profit, and once profit is counted as the primary goal of an essential public service, the service part is sure to suffer.