Charter schools measure officially on Wash. ballot
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The charter schools initiative is officially on the Washington state ballot for November.
Secretary of State Sam Reed announced Wednesday that supporters easily qualified by submitting more than enough signatures.
The charter schools initiative will be one of five ballot measures on the fall ballot. Voters will also consider gay marriage, decriminalizing marijuana, requiring a supermajority to raise taxes and two constitutional amendments concerning state investments.
The charter schools measure would allow the independent public schools to be established in Washington state for the first time. Voters have rejected the idea three other times, in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Supporters gathered more than 350,000 signatures for charter school Initiative 1240, far more than the minimum requirement of about 241,000. Inspectors found a lower than average error rate, of either invalid or duplicated signatures.
Secretary of State Sam Reed announced Wednesday that supporters easily qualified by submitting more than enough signatures.
The charter schools initiative will be one of five ballot measures on the fall ballot. Voters will also consider gay marriage, decriminalizing marijuana, requiring a supermajority to raise taxes and two constitutional amendments concerning state investments.
The charter schools measure would allow the independent public schools to be established in Washington state for the first time. Voters have rejected the idea three other times, in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Supporters gathered more than 350,000 signatures for charter school Initiative 1240, far more than the minimum requirement of about 241,000. Inspectors found a lower than average error rate, of either invalid or duplicated signatures.
Found this article and comments debate bc I want to relocate to WA to be close to family. My children currently attend a wonderful charter school. The charter school is a part of the public school system and local school district. I do not pay for my kids to attend, but do volunteer my time (54 hrs of involvement--volunteering, parent/teacher conf, project nights, school picnics, etc.--required, but I far exceeded that bc my children love this school so much). A charter school is only as good as the charter and the staff behind it--we have had a few charter school failures in the San Diego Unified School District. Our school, on the other hand, has a waiting list. I tried my neighborhood public school and was disgusted by the apathetic, disgruntled, entitled staff, who did not care whether parents heard their awful comments. By contrast, the charter school staff WANT to teach, are enthusiastic, and, incidentally, are paid less than their district counterparts. They are as welcoming to my autistic son as they are to my high performing model student daughter. In fact, they invited me to transfer him so we could have them together at the same school. Finally, the district school teachers did not want volunteers in the classroom, though the librarian was thrilled to have the help. I used to be a staunch advocate for teachers, always voting my tax dollars their way. I am much more careful now... I just thought your discourse could use a comment from someone who is experiencing what you are considering. And now to text my family, including my public school teacher sister, to vote YES...
Yes! Whether you support the idea of charter schools or not, I think we'd all agree that it's exciting to see people in this state at least consider changing our schools. Washington state public education is not properly funded and does not allow for competition and choice.
 @makeadifference You know the truth is, this really wasn't something that was a popular grass roots movement. The whole thing was funded by some of the super wealthy folks who have a stealth economic interest in seeing for-profit schools replace public schools. They even paid $6 a pop for signatures on the initiative. Maybe the people will vote for it this time, hard to say but whatever the case this is one of those "donor created" initiatives. In other words, our government legislative process in essence again being controlled by the mega-wealthy. Maybe some out there believe that the interests of the wealthy just happen to coincide with the interests of the average American but I don't believe that for a minute. As well, maybe some believe that the mega-wealthy are just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. I doubt that as well. Â
@kennewickman That's interesting information. Can you site your sources? I'm interested to follow up on this.
@kennewickman Truthfully, I"m not completely opposed by the idea... also not opposed to the voucher system which is controversial among many. I've been for corporate sponsorship ever since I saw the incredibly deep cuts being made to education. If there is a mix of schools available, I really don't see what the problem is. I guess that's my love for free enterprise speaking.
@makeadifference I appreciate your perspective but I am unable to assign such benevolence to these folks. If they really cared about a future stream of qualified employees, they could work with the public schools rather than against them. The public school system welcomes experimental schools and would be glad to work with Gates and set up a computer school within a school.
@kennewickman Thank you for this information. I didn't really know this but I can't say I'm super surprised. I think it's very important to know all of the details behind these measures so I really do appreciate this. After attending a few town hall/ school board meetings, it makes sense that the Gates and other business owners back this. If we have more educated students, we won't have to search the entire world for microsoft employees. My husband is in software and he has been able to change his jobs twice in the past 5 years, each time demanding higher pay. There aren't too many "legal" industries where this is true. The reason? Not enough local talent. I'm not entirely disagreeing with you that we should all re-examine the motives behind these donors but I did want to offer up this perspective.
@makeadifference Here you go, from the Public Disclosure Commission. Your eyes will pop out when you see this list, legislation by the wealthy for the wealthy. http://www.pdc.wa.gov/MvcQuerySystem/CommitteeData/contributions?param=WUVTIFdDIDUwNw%3D%3D%3D%3D&year=2012&type=initiative
Kennewickman...you are wise. I just wrote a letter to Bill Gates...sharing my heart wretched thoughts...right after some "thugs" from DC tried to convince me to sign the petition to get charter schools on the ballot because  "how can public schools be good when (he) just got shot" .... in DC while attending a public school....definitely not a grass root movement...
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@jm Yeah, you have to wonder why WalMart, Gates, Bezos and NetFlix want this so bad they are willing to pour in millions.
If some of the techniques used in private schools work, why not adopt them into the public system without creating these tax money nutshell games called charter schools?
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Oh wait, they have.
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My kid goes to a public school based on the Montessori model. They stripped away the dogma, and left the teaching system in place, and it friggin' works! Taxes well spent!
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Did I mention it was a public school?
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Most of the commenters here seem to agree, a few dissenters aside, and I hope this is reflective of the overall voter base.
@Audio Cat ... and it didn't work for my kids. Now I pay tons of money... gladly because it's better for my kids. Giving people additional options, raising the standard and creating a little competition is a GOOD thing.
 @makeadifference  @Audio They do have options. It's called private school. You exercised it yourself. If a person wants to feed the free market school system, then it is in place. Just pay up. Because that is what it is all about.Â
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@Audio Cat @Audio and what about those that can't afford private school but want better for their children? I can't afford it myself but have made steep sacrifices.
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Ahh yes charter schools AKA "I can't afford private school but I still think my kid is better than yours and I want you to pay for it".
@ducati AKA, this system isn't working for my kid... .there's a thousand different learning styles but if a child doesn't learn the way the public schools teach, he is labeled. Choice and high standards isn't a bad thing.
 @ducati or I can't afford private school and I am sick of my kids getting experimented on by the NEA, WEA and the worthless public schools!
And it will be defeated AGAIN.
I came from a state that had charter schools. What an epic fail! They would not take my nephew into their schools, because he had a learning disability. Know what they told my brother? That their school just did not offer the services but to a few kids who had a disablility. They were not equipped to help him and not enough space is what we were told. Wow. They used public funds and taxpayer monies to set up and run those charter schools, yet they cannot service all kids? WTF??? I think it's all a crock anyway. Just an excuse to use tax payer money to run their schools the way they want to! I will be sure to tell my friends and my acquaintances that charter schools do discriminate. We have personal experience.
 @Koawoodplayer wow, imagine that using their taxes to run the schools the way that they see fit and not the way that the unions see fit. Cracks me up how people on the public school side think that only they are allowed to decide what tax payer money is to be spent on.
 @whoareyou The people in Washington State have repeatedly decided how they want their tax dollars used, to support the public schools.Â
 @kennewickman correct, they take them voluntarily if they want to go to an out of state or private college. The rest (vast majority) only take the WASL.
@whoareyou Dude, you are delusional, public school kids take the SATs as well. Did you really not know that?
@kennewickman @whoareyou I hate to tell you this, but my kids school takes the SAT, not the watered down WASL. It is public schools that should be held to the same standard as private schools..not the other way around! Nice try with your atheist rant. Very few people send their kids to private school for religion, they send them there to get a real education!
 @whoareyou Not if they are for-profit schools. Not if they get to pick and choose which kids they will serve. Not if they are not subject to the same testing requirements as all public schools. Not if they use taxpayer funds to teach religion. It is one of those rights of conscience things on my part not to pay to inculcate children into ancients superstitions. Certainly, you respect rights of conscience, don't you?
@kennewickman @whoareyou great, so if they decide to go ahead with charter schools this time then you are OK with that decision?
Charter schools accept the students by their own rules. That means, children that are autistic and special needs will not be allowed. Charter schools also will not be under the same public scrutiny that public schools are. If you put your children in a charter school, they don't answer to you. If there is financial mismanagement, you'll never know it until you show up to drop your kids off and the doors are closed. Do some research. Be an informed voter.
 @mr_sandman so set up a charter school for kids who are autistic or have special needs.
 @whoareyou The public schools already offer services for special needs children, there is just no need to set up a charter when the services already exist. Even more important is the fact that the public schools are REQUIRED to take on all students, not just those that some charter schools might happen to want.Â
 @kennewickman So move over to Kent Meridian and tell me that all schools are the same. Also, you are correct that KENT is not a hyper-wealthy area, the little secret is that you don't live in Kent, you live in Covington.
@kennewickman @whoareyou You are in the Kent school district and you're happy with not having choices? I'm in a neighboring district that has better scores than Kent does and I still ran like the wind. It is my prayer that the kids that can't leave at least have choices of other, affordable, places to attend.
 @whoareyou Dude, you live in some fantasy world of ignorance. I don't know why you keep saying I am rich. Kent is not some hyper-wealthy area, mostly just simple middle-class as I see it. You still haven't addressed, because you can't, why the school system works for some families but not for others. And, if the same system is used both places, successful vs. underperforming schools, isn't the variable that causes failure outside the school?
@makeadifference @kennewickman oh no...according to kennewick everything is fine (of course he lives in a rich area with a great public school). Nothing to see here, keep sending your sheep to our slaughter!
@kennewickman @whoareyou The services available for children on the spectrum are far from acceptable.
@kennewickman great, good to know they aren't failing special needs kids. Now for the rest of the kids that are trying to keep up with the rest of the world, who cares huh?
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 @GoDawgs private school parents pay taxes too. How come it is ok for them to subsidize your kids school, but not the other way around. Either quit taking their taxes or give them a choice!
@whoareyou @GoDawgs Thank you!!!! Amen. I've always wondered why I can't write off part of that tax expense when that system has failed my children.
 @kennewickman Here is your private corporation speech again. Get the government 100% out of the education system. Let everyone choose for themselves where they want to send their kids.
 @kennewickman You can't be this blind to the world? Nobody is this ethnocentric that they are this clueless. Of course the better teachers go to the affluent areas. Once again, you are debating a person who spent their life intertwined in the Kent School District. My older sisters went to KM back in the 60s before Kentridge opened. It was a good school back then. When KR opened the best teachers flocked to it. Kentridge was a great school for the next couple of decades and then Kentwood opened in the early 80s, once again all the best teachers flocked to Kentwood. The same happened when Kentlake opened. Do you honestly think when given a choice the best teachers are going to go teach at that derelict of a joke of a school (KM)?Â
@makeadifference Plus it is a lie that "everyone will benefit". The corporations will move in, pay WalMart wages and generally provide only conveyor belt education.
@makeadifference Sorry, but I don't buy it. Something about your comment doesn't ring quite true. I get the feeling that you are a shill for those who are desperately seeking to wrest the schools away from the public and give them to private corporations.
@kennewickman @whoareyou So free choices for everyone is a bad thing? No, the situations of poverty and of drug use aren't fair. I have spent a large portion of my life serving and fighting for those children. However, we can't base our system on what's fair and what isn't. My children come from upper middle class homes with a stay at home mother and two parents that greatly value education... the system still didn't work. If there was competition for greater curriculum, teachers that genuinely love to teach and higher standards, everyone would benefit. I can't promise that every charter school will offer that but it's a start.  Nobody presently offers any of the aforementioned.Â
 @whoareyou You deny the reality available for you to easily see every time you step out of your house. Look around. Do all people take care of their houses the same or do some people live in manicured order while others live in unsightly squalor? Do you think that some families are afflicted with drug and alcohol dependencies while others are not? The same teaching system is used at all schools, yet the kids from the poor neighborhoods don't do as well as the wealthier areas. Why is that? Are all the good teachers magically in the more affluent areas? Are the children in the poorer areas not capable of learning under the same teaching systems that work in the more affluent areas?
@makeadifference because people like kennewick think you are too stupid to make your own choices. Choices for them only count when babies are being killed!
 @whoareyou We all pay for the public infrastructure. It is your choice if you want to use it or not. If the super wealthy could afford their own highway system to drive on and decided not to use public highways, would you be demanding that the super wealthy be exempted from paying taxes for public highways?
 @kennewickman Your crap might work if you weren't debating a guy who spent a good part of his summers hanging up alphabets in the schools out in Covington. Kids are assigned to where they live. The borders for KM are purposefully drawn to keep all the apartment complexes and shadier areas of Kent up around Benson and James street and Kent Kangley and over accross to the west hill. Kentridge gets some of the apartments north of 212th on Benson and up near Glen Karin, Boulevard Lanes and some of the apartments in Fairwood. Kentwood and Kentlake get Meridian Valley, Covington and all the affluent areas around the lakes out there. Meridian Valley was purposely carved out of KM and Kentridge so they would go to Kentwood and later Kentlake when those schools were built. So yes, you are keeping the riff raff out!
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 @whoareyou re: "You could just as easily afford private school if you sent your kids to Kentlake." Are you nuts?  re: "That is a school full of rich kids too, the difference is you keep the rif-raff out and send them down to Kent Meridian". Since that isn't how schools are assigned, I guess we know the answer to the first question.
@kennewickman Nice try...nobody is saying that private school or charter school parents be "exempted" and you know it. Also, this debate is not about the rich. You could just as easily afford private school if you sent your kids to Kentlake. It isn't cheap to live in Covington. That is a school full of rich kids too, the difference is you keep the rif-raff out and send them down to Kent Meridian. I would like to see if you would sing the same tune if your kids were forced to go there. BTW...I know all too well about the Kent School District, especially the area you live in. My old man taught there for 35 years between Pine Tree, Covington, Meridian Jr. High and other schools. That is an afluent area of Kent. Can't compare it a bit to the other school districts or even areas of Kent. You are fine with your public school experience because you are rich and your kids went to a nearly all white rich kids public school.
I'm sorry that your experience with public schools has been negative. I am in full support of public schools and know that there are fabulous people teaching our kids. We are not perfect as I'm sure in your professions, there are top notch workers and those that need more support or do not have the heart to do what they were hired to do. Come and see what our public schools are doing before you support charter schools. Please do your homework and know that there are few charter schools that sustain their successes. Bottom line is that public schools are already scraping the barrel...we cannot afford to anymore.
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@jm Depends on your district. At a school plagued with 80% free and reduced lunch, my teachers and principal are so busy taking care of other things that they don't have the resources to challenge those that fall in the middle of the bell curve.
 @jm Continue experimenting on other people's kids. Mine will not be part of your experiment. I think that people could take that you are not perfect, the problem is you are far from perfect. If a private business was run the way you teachers run public schools, they would be investigated.
@whoareyou @jm ...yes, and in a private business, they don't have to care if their clientele are homeless or being abused or addicted to drugs, they just fire them...I'm glad we don't have that choice! Our problems are bigger than our schools....and attitudes as yours helps no one.Â
@kennewickman not until schools stop equating a label with additional funding.
 @kennewickman Public schools get nearly twice the money private schools do (not to mention what they get in bonds, buildings, roads, busses, etc).Â
 @kennewickman Since you admit that it is impossible for public schools to succeed, then get out of the way and give the private schools a chance. This cop out where you continue to make excuses is getting old.Â
@makeadifference Gosh, maybe if we funded the schools and had enough staff to deal with those cases where extra help is needed. Taking funds away from the public schools and giving it to for-profit mercenaries won't help.
@kennewickman @whoareyou "Public schools are required to service all children." Yet they don't!!! The only time a child receives attention is if the school can slap a label on him and receive additional funding. It's sick!
@jm Yes, socialism is definitely the answer then...
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 @whoareyou Sorry, it is you missing the point. Public schools are required to service all children. Private schools pick and choose. Comparing a public school to a private business is always inappropriate unless you start telling business that they have to bid on every single project that comes along, even those where it is impossible to succeed. Â
@jm You missed the point, which is the exact reason that I don't let people like you teach my kids. If a private business failed its clients as bad as you are failing yours, for the ridiculous amount of money that you are given per client, all of those involved would be investigated. Your problems are bigger than your schools, I pulled my kids out 10 years ago and no longer allow people like you to teach them! Screw up other peoples kids!