Washington, D.C. – Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released the following statement, asking Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to call a special legislative session to address the charter school law declared unconstitutional by the Washington State Supreme Court:
“On behalf of the nationwide charter school movement, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools implores Governor Inslee to call a special legislative session to fix the public charter school law deemed unconstitutional by the State Supreme Court earlier this week.
“As is now clear, without immediate legislative action, nearly 1,200 students will forced out of their current public schools.
“The people of Washington spoke loud and clear when they passed a ballot provision creating public charter schools in 2012. And now that nine charters schools are serving hundreds of students across the state, if the governor does not call this session, he will be failing the Washington families who made the choice to enroll their children in public charter schools. We hope and expect the Governor will do the right thing for these students and families.”
About Public Charter Schools
Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, manyresearch studieshavefound that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit www.publiccharters.org.
