Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., is soon expected to sign a bill that will save the state’s public charter schools. The schools have endured a dramatic battle for public funding, starting with the narrowest of victories in a 2012 ballot initiative. Then, a teachers’ union-backed lawsuit led the state supreme court to declare the state’s charter school law unconstitutional. In spite of the opposition, charter schools in Washington found the funding to survive. Now, the legislature has found a workaround solution: fund the schools using lottery revenue, and it should pass constitutional muster.
“Our lives have been a whirlwind,” Jessica Garcia, who has a daughter at Destiny Charter Middle School in Tacoma, Washington, told the Washington Examiner. Since the legislative session began on Jan. 5, Garcia and another mother from Destiny essentially made a full-time job out of supporting charter schools. They started making the trek to Olympia (more than an hour round trip) every weekday to talk to legislators. “We had 78 individual meetings with various representatives and senators.” Garcia has been telling legislators that charter schools are “helping to bring life and vitality back to communities that have been forgotten, to families that have been forgotten.”
Garcia and I spoke six months ago, just after the state supreme court ruling was handed down. She said she lost faith in public schools when her oldest child, who has autism, was bullied daily. School choice came too late to help, but Garcia’s daughter now gets a personalized education at Destiny that she couldn’t get in a traditional public school. There are innovative traditional public schools in Tacoma, Garcia says, but they’re only open to a few students and don’t start until high school. “High school, for a lot of these kids, is just too late to light that fire for learning. … These charters really do help fill in that gap in those very important years.”
The last six months have not been easy. “It’s been a very emotional roller coaster,” Garcia said.
In September, charter supporters asked Inslee to call a special legislative session to fix the charter law, but Inslee rebuffed their requests. When the regular session did start, progress was slow. The Senate passed a bill in January, but nothing was happening in the House. Two weeks ago, the House Education Committee still hadn’t advanced the bill to the House floor, and the charter legislation looked dead.
It was on Wednesday, with only one more day remaining in the legislative session, that the House passed the charter bill. Thursday, the Senate concurred with the House version. It was a narrow 26-23 vote, but that’s all it took to send the bill to Inslee’s desk.
Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, praised the efforts of parents and charter supporters in saving the schools. “We celebrate the parents who led this charge, and the school and movement leaders who refused to take no for an answer,” Rees said in a press release. “Their amazing efforts on behalf of Washington’s students has led to one of the most remarkable victories in the history of this movement.”
I asked Garcia what it means for her family that charter schools are saved for the foreseeable future. “Hope. Hope and a relief. The promise of something better. … All we want as parents is choice. Just to have back that power as a parent, I can’t even put into words.”
But for Garcia and other charter supporters, the fight doesn’t stop here. The charter bill is a tremendous victory, but it’s only a start. “I don’t see this as being done,” Garcia said. If nothing else changes, her daughter will still have to go to a traditional public high school after middle school. “We really want to have education fixed for all children, and for all families, and have as many options as possible.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.