Education Week - January 6, 2016 - 6

Wash. Ruling Could Inspire Charter Opponents Elsewhere

"

By Arianna Prothero

Diverting money
away from an already
underfunded public
school system makes
no sense."
RICH WOOD
Washington Education Association

Rachel La Corte/AP

For an education movement that's
grown exponentially over the past
two decades and scored legislative
and legal victories in more than 40
states, the Washington State Supreme Court's ruling in September
that charter schools are unconstitutional is a major blow.
Since then, national advocates
have been weighing what impact
that decision could have on charter
schools in other states. Although
the Washington Supreme Court
doesn't have jurisdiction beyond
its state, its ruling could provide a
roadmap for charter school opponents elsewhere, they say.
"As you look at the ruling and the
decision, some of the questions that
the court examined are tenets that
are similar in state constitutions elsewhere," said Eric Paisner, the chief
of staff at the National Alliance for
Public Charter Schools. "Until there's
a specific lawsuit that's filed, there's
no specific action we can take. We can
do research to have a sense of where
risk is."
In Washington, however, local advocates and parents are scrambling to
keep charters open.
"I'm up to my eyeballs," said Jessica
Garcia, whose daughter is attending
one of the eight charter schools that
opened weeks before the ruling came
down. "We've been nonstop emailing
representatives, making plans to host

Students and charter
advocates rally at the
Capitol in Olympia, Wash.,
late last year, with the goal
of halting the closure of
charter schools in the wake
of a state supreme court
ruling.

school tours and to dispel misinformation, but also going to their offices,
being part of rallies at the capitol."
In its original decision, the state's
high court ruled that charter schools
do not qualify as "common" schools-
basically, public schools-in part
because they are not governed by
voter-elected school boards, but
rather by appointed boards. Without
that designation, charters weren't

eligible for funding they expected
to get, and the court reasoned that
voters would never have approved
the creation of charter schools in a
2012 ballot initiative if there was no
money to pay for them.
Then in November, the court refused to reconsider its decision after
several parties, including state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, asked
the court to re-examine its ruling. The
court did, however, strike out a footnote in its earlier ruling that Ferguson
flagged as inadvertently putting other
publicly funded educational programs
at risk, such as tribal compact schools.

Seeking Legislative Fix
Washington's nine charter schools
continued to receive state funding
pending an appeal, but with a final
rejection from the high court's justices, the flow of money was expected
to be shut off by mid-December.
With the judicial path exhausted,
advocates are now looking to the
Washington legislature for a permanent fix and other stop-gap measures
to keep charters open in the interim.
"Internally, we've referred to it
[tweaking the law] as a plumbing
fix," said Thomas Franta, the chief
executive officer of the Washington
Charter Schools Association. "The
root of the court's concern deals
with the means by which money
flows to public charter schools. We
have a number of legislative champions that are putting forward a
number of different options that
we believe would ... accomplish the
plumbing fix and ... meet constitutional scrutiny if there is ever a
case down the road."
Although there's no bill yet, Franta
says there's support from lawmakers
in both chambers and parties.
But reworking the state's charter
law isn't the only high-profile education issue facing lawmakers.
Washington's Supreme Court
ruled in 2012 in McCleary v. Washington that lawmakers were failing
to adequately fund public education
in the state, and went so far as to
declare the legislature in contempt
6 | EDUCATION WEEK | January 6, 2016 | www.edweek.org

of court last August, levying a daily
$100,000 fine on the state.
In that context, fighting for a legislative fix to the charter school issue
is a harmful distraction, said Rich
Wood, a spokesman for the Washington Education Association, which was
a party to the court case.
"I would hope, and we all hope,
the legislature will focus on [funding
schools under the McCleary ruling]
rather than trying to resurrect an unconstitutional charter school law that
has been thrown out by the supreme
court," he said. "Diverting money away
from an already underfunded public
school system makes no sense."
However things play out for charter
supporters, Washington's legislative
session doesn't start until later this
month, state funding was expected to
stop last month, and charter leaders
are trying to figure out ways to keep
schools open through the end of this
school year.

'Alternative Learning Experience'
One strategy-and the approach
that most charters are pursuing, said
Franta-is to contract with a district
as "alternative learning experience"
programs. That designation allows
districts to sign contracts with outside
groups to provide services such as online classes or programs for incarcerated youths.
If all else fails, schools could be
propped up by private dollars, said
Franta.
"The private funding option is still
on the table, but we see it as the laststop backstop," he said.
The legal limbo has taken a toll on
families like Garcia's. Her 11-year-old
daughter, Isadora, attends Destiny
Charter Middle School-part of the
Los Angles-based Green Dot network.
"We're just wanting to keep an air
of cohesiveness to our children's lives
and education," she said. "But in the
back of our mind as parents we're
like, 'Do we need to have a plan
B?' For a lot of us, we don't have a
backup plan."
Garcia says she refuses to return
Isadora to her district school because she was not being challenged
academically.
Coverage of issues related to creating
opportunities for all American students
and their families to choose a quality
school is supported by a grant from
the Walton Family Foundation, at
waltonk12.org. Education Week retains
sole editorial control over the content of
this coverage.
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Education Week - January 6, 2016

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