The Washington Supreme Courtroom dominated Friday that the state’s voter-approved charter-school regulation is unconstitutional, throwing the brand new faculty yr into chaos for about 1,200 pupils enrolled within the system.
“WA Charters is shocked and deeply disappointed with the State Supreme Court’s ruling, which rejected the public charter school law that voters approved in 2012-recognized as one of the strongest in the nation”.
“The decision strikes down the voter-approved charter school system”.
The high court’s opinion takes effect in 20 days, barring any reconsideration by the court.
The intensity of opinion, on what charter schools give and what they take away, was evident Friday night.
Chief Justice Barbara Madsen said that charter schools are not “common schools” because “they’re governed by appointed rather than elected boards”.
Washington’s charter schools all plan to open their doors on Tuesday for their students, as we pursue legal and political remedies.
“I went to a private school (Gonzaga Prep), yet our public schools are not paying livable wages and our citizens need to demand (that) no one is placed in poverty with a teaching vocation and all our kids should ask that we have their backs when they commit to hard work and dream”, he said.
I-1240 passed by a 1 percent margin in 2012, after charter schools had previously been rejected three times by Washington voters. This school year, eight more have opened, with classes beginning over the past few weeks. This year, there will be nine – in Spokane, Tacoma, Kent, Highline and Seattle.
The Washington Education Association was joined by the League of Women Voters of Washington, El Centro de la Raza, the Washington Association of School Administrators and several individual plaintiffs.
Washington is now being held in contempt by the Supreme Court for failing to increase education spending. In state after state, supreme courts have determined that charter schools are valid and part of the system of public schools states offer. In a 6-3 decision, the court found public funding for the schools is illegal. “The portions of l-1240 designating charter schools as common schools violate article IX, section 2 of the Washington Constitution and are invalid”.
“Nowhere does the Act determine a supply of funding, it merely states that constitution faculties should “obtain funding based mostly on scholar enrollment identical to present public faculties, ‘” wrote Justice Mary Fairhurst. “Because the Act neither identifies a source of funding nor commands the use of restricted funds to support charter schools, it withstands appellants” facial challenge and is constitutional”.
A national advocacy group is calling on Gov. Jay Inslee to order a special session of the Legislature so lawmakers can change a charter school law declared unconstitutional.
“We are reviewing the court’s opinion and will be consulting with the Office of the Attorney General”, Inslee’s spokesman, David Postman, said in an email.
The decision didn’t affect the vast majority of Georgia’s charter schools, according to the Georgia Charter Schools Association.
Republican state Sen. Steve Litzow, who chairs the State Senate’s K-12 education committee, said: “Public charter schools provide high-quality opportunity, especially for at-risk children, to succeed in the classroom”.