Charter advocates raise nearly $5M in 6 weeks

SEATTLE — The campaign to bring charter schools to Washington raised nearly $5 million in cash contributions during the past six weeks.

According to filings posted with the Public Disclosure Commission on Tuesday, those donations to Yes on 1240 includes another $2 million from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates but do not include a pledge of $1.5 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The committee advocating for the charter schools initiative has raised a total of $9.4 million in cash so far.

Two groups are working to defeat the initiative. According to the Public Disclosure Commission, a group called People for Our Public Schools has raised about $280,000 in cash, most of it within the past six weeks. Another group, called No on 1240, has raised about $9,000 in cash.