The Washington Education Association (WEA) is in serious need of some after-school lessons – because once again they have filed a lawsuit to try to close the state’s public charter schools. The teachers union bosses just can’t abide the presence of even a handful of schools that can hire teachers who won’t be forced to give the WEA dues money.
The Associated Press reports that the WEA is hiding behind the State Supreme Court’s McCleary decision – and its mandate for increased funding for public schools – as the reason they are filing the lawsuit. Of course, that is just false.
The reality, as State Senator Joe Fain – who co-sponsored the bill earlier this year that helped fixed problems the court had found in the charter school initiative passed by the voters – points out, is that “the education union is spending so much time and resources to deny children an education that is working for them.”
Fain gave the WEA back-handed credit for one point carried in its press release: “The union is right about one thing. The state has an unmet duty to a million kids that are in both traditional and charter public schools. A solution to McCleary will provide better equality and opportunity to students no matter what kind of public school they attend.”
But the union doesn’t want to focus on better education outcomes for poor students if it involved public charter schools, and fortunately for them Governor Jay Inslee is an ally. In a true profile in courage, Inslee’s spokesperson said, “Right now, charter schools are still open. We’ll see what happens in court.”
Indeed, we’ll just have to see what happens in court. And maybe what happens in voting this November.
Let me just remind failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna, whose organization this is, that there were more than a few merely technical problems the Washington State Supreme Court had with the concept of charter schools. You see, in this state you can’t use public money to pay for private, non-accountable schools. Senator Fain’s work-around is that a tiny school district near Spokane is now the “school district of record” for all the charters in the state. It is, basically, a fraud. If proponents of charters were actually honest, they would promote charters in a straightforward way, by changing the Washington State Constitution. Good luck with that.
I don’t care much for the caption, but I’d like to thank the publishers of the Shift for the very nice close-up of some of the thousands of Washington educators who visited Olympia last year? Or was it the year before that? Or maybe the year before that? to press the Legislature to fulfill their duty to the students and parents of Washington state.
“The Washington Education Association (WEA) is in serious need of some after-school lessons – because once again they have filed a lawsuit to try to close the state’s public charter schools. The teachers union bosses just can’t abide the presence of even a handful of schools that can hire teachers who won’t be forced to give the WEA dues money.”
This is a poor paragraph; you didn’t follow up the “after-school lessons” snark with with anything related to learning, making it a poor dis. D+ effort, please revise.
“and fortunately for them Governor Jay Inslee is an ally.”
Jay Inslee could have vetoed the charter schools fix and killed them entirely for this year, but he didn’t. Is there a reason that didn’t make your article?
Is there any justice in this state? So aggravating!