Though opponents lost their battle to keep charter schools out of the state, local officials believe impacts to the state’s public education system will be minimal.
“I think this was more a political statement than anything,” said Edmonds School District superintendent Wayne Robertson. “I don’t think it will have any sweeping effects.”
The Legislature on March 10 approved a bill allowing 45 charter schools to be established in the state over the next six years. The first of those schools could come as soon as this fall. The bill also makes it possible for school districts to turn failing public schools into charter schools.
Voters turned down similar efforts for two years and charter schools have been strongly opposed by both local legislators and school-district officials for almost a decade.
The main concern of charter-school critics is that they would severely change public education funding. While charter schools run independently from other public schools, they would be state-funded in the same manner, possibly draining already low resources from local school programs.
“This could represent a diversion of resources from already financially strapped public education programs to support private endeavors,” Robertson said. “That doesn’t seem appropriate.”
Some critics believe the bill passed this year because it was grouped with three heavily supported education bills in a package backed by Gov. Gary Locke.
“I think it was the linkage with the other education bills that were very important for us to pass,” said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, who voted against the initiative. “The Senate said that the WASL retake, the levy capacity bill and the LAP bill would not pass the Senate unless charter schools passed the House.
“That was a lot of leverage that I think convinced some who voted ‘no’ that it was worth the risk.”
The changes made in the bill over the past year also may have made a significant difference.
“The bill this time was much more carefully drafted,” Kagi said. She added that the primary changes included discarding the option for a university to approve and oversee a charter school and making it so a converted charter school would be accountable to the district’s school board.
Officials said they hope that if there are changes that follow the integration of charter schools into Washington, that they will be positive.
“The bottom line is that charter schools are here in Washington state, and I will support them and I will watch them very closely to see what we can learn about them,” said Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, who voted against charter schools. “It is nice to have the battle over.”
She added, “If the Legislature could focus the same amount of energy into funding public schools as they did on charter schools, we could be doing some really good work.”
The other education bills that passed this session include:
• House Bill 2195, which allows tenth-graders to retake the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) exam that is required for high school graduation starting with the class of 2008.
• Senate Bill 5877 restructures the state’s Learning Assistance Program to provide more grants for schools based on funding needs versus test scores.
• Senate Bill 6211 will allow school districts to collect more money from local voter-approved levies even under strict budget cuts.
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