This editorial board has long favored opening public charter schools in Washington. Increasingly across the nation, charters have proven themselves to be important sources of education innovation, especially in communities with high numbers of struggling students.
Charters are public schools, but they operate under performance contracts rather than typical district rules. That frees them to try new approaches, many of which are showing results when it comes to student achievement.
They can also operate outside the bounds of union contracts, a key reason why the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Washington Education Association, has fought them in the past. That opposition has been effective; voters have turned down charters three times in the past 16 years, the last time in 2004.
Washington is one of only eight states still without such schools.
Another fight over charters is being teed up in Olympia, where a bipartisan charter bill (SB 6202) supported by key business leaders was introduced Friday.
“Why would you want to prevent schools that people are clamoring in other states to get into?” the prime sponsor, Sen. Rodney Tom (D-Medina) asked in an Associated Press article.
Indeed, we still believe charters ought to be an option here. The question isn’t one of “if,” but of “when.”
The Legislature has enough difficult decisions on its plate during the current 60-day session, primarily how to cut $1.5 billion out of the current budget, and deciding whether to ask voters to increase the sales tax to bring that number down.
Lawmakers also have other important education reform ideas on the table, such as proposals to implement a more stringent evaluation system for teachers and principals.
On top of that, lawmakers, the governor and other education leaders must begin responding to the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Washington isn’t meeting its constitutional duty to fully fund basic education. The court has given the Legislature until 2018 to meet that requirement. How charter schools fit into that equation is a question that shouldn’t be rushed.
Reformers should push the evaluation system first. The question of charters ought to be part of the broader funding discussion, which needs to start now.
But passing a charter bill this session would undoubtedly spark a referendum to overturn it, drawing attention away from the more immediate question of whether taxes should help narrow the budget gap.
Charter schools ought to be on the education menu eventually. It’s just not a battle to have this year.
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