Washington Supreme Court Finds Charter School Law Unconstitutional

Washington state’s highest court ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional late Friday, overturning a citizens’ initiative authorizing the publicly funded private schools. A majority of the Supreme Court has now reversed that decision, resulting in I-1240’s total demise. “The portions of l-1240 designating charter schools as common schools violate article IX, section 2 of the Washington Constitution and are invalid”.

She was joined by Justices Charles Johnson, Charles Wiggins, Mary Yu, Debra Stephens and Susan Owens.

Citing a Washington Supreme Court ruling from 1909, Madsen said the charter schools are not common schools because they are controlled by a charter school board – not by local voters.

The court’s decision is based on a century-old precedent that said charter schools cannot receive “common school” public funds because they are not overseen by an elected school board. This year, there will be nine – in Spokane, Tacoma, Kent, Highline and Seattle. At this point, no one really knows what to do next.

The decision didn’t affect the vast majority of Georgia’s charter schools, according to the Georgia Charter Schools Association. In 2012, voters approved a constitutional amendment that reinstated the state commission. The ruling is not a criticism of charter schools or charter school organizations like our, nor does not immediately shut down charter schools.

“We are reviewing the court’s opinion and will be consulting with the Office of the Attorney General”, Inslee’s spokesman, David Postman, said in an email.

In a partial dissent, three members of the court said they agreed charter schools don’t meet the definition of a common school and shouldn’t get tax money set aside specifically for those entities.

“All I can say is that no charter school can operate as a public school, and the charter schools would need to find a different funding source than the state of Washington unless there’s some action by the state Legislature”, he said.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says “charter schools are unique public schools that are allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement”.

Other groups, including the statewide teachers union, praised Friday’s ruling as helping protect funding for the state’s 1 million public school students. In any event, charters won’t be getting more money that is supposed to go to public schools. And, while nominally known as public schools, they have proven fiendishly opaque from outside inspection on everything from staffing to contracting for buildings and services.

Last month, a King County judge said that while the initiative appears to exceed the scope of the initiative process, it was unclear whether free speech protections in the state and federal constitutions would preclude a pre-election challenge of the measure, and that the Supreme Court would have to make that determination.

Washington’s charter schools all plan to open their doors on Tuesday for their students, as we pursue legal and political remedies.

Mead said the court ruling is “another reminder of the state Legislature’s failure to fully fund basic education as required by the state Constitution”. If they were willing to open their checkbooks for a campaign, surely they’ll do so again now to help these charter schools flourish as private schools.