Charter school advocates in Washington State are defending their brand new charter school law in King County Superior Court. The new law is modest; it opens the door for charter schools in Washington State and gives students, families and communities the opportunity to get acquainted with the charter school model and school choice. It authorizes up to 40 public charter schools over the next five years, with a maximum of eight new schools permitted to open across the state in a single year. The law explicitly seeks to provide alternatives for “at-risk” students or students in low-performing public schools. The initiative’s drafters put two decades of national experience to good use, writing one of the nation’s best laws; the National Alliance ranks Washington State’s law as the third strongest in the country.
Nevertheless, opponents of the law, including the League of Women Voters of Washington, the Washington Association of School Administrators and the Washington Education Association, allege charter schools are unconstitutional on three grounds:
Charter schools are unconstitutional under the Washington state constitution’s mandate for the state to provide a “general and uniform” system of education;
Funding for charter schools is unconstitutional because charters receive monies earmarked for “common schools” and charters are not “common schools” under WA state law;
The statewide charter school authorizer is impermissible because the State Superintendent does not have supervisory authority over schools authorized by the independent commission in violation of the WA constitution.
Similar constitutional challenges have been filed in several other states – California, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Utah – and all have failed. Charter advocates in Washington State are aggressively defending their law, and it is expected this battle eventually will land in Washington State Supreme Court. The National Alliance applauds the team of charter advocates in Washington State for their tenacious and unshakeable commitment to the students of their state. Renita Thukral is the vice president of legal affairs at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
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