One more charter vote . . .

washingtonstatewire.com

Last week a coalition of education groups led by the League of Education Voters filed an initiative on charter schools.  The initiative is similar to the bill that did not make it out of the recent legislative session and has the support of legislators who sponsored the bill.  It will be our fourth opportunity in this state to determine the fate of charter schools as initiatives have failed on three previous occasions. 

This is not going to go away as these education advocacy groups see this as one of the necessary components of reform and it doesn't hurt their cause when the federal education department makes it part of grant requests.  There is foundation money behind this initiative and support from a more diverse group than what we saw with previous attempts.  For example, a new organization Democrats for Education Reform are in favor of charters.  Charters are also now the norm in many states so I believe that this initiative has a greater chance of success than the last vote in 2004.

It will be another opportunity for the reform groups to take on the educational establishment, especially WEA who opposes the initiative.  Come November we will see who prevails.