The disgustingly corrupt NEA consistantly punishes students and parents. Here's yet another example...not only are they against vouchers, but they're against charter schools as well.
heritage.org
Washington offers post-secondary enrollment options to allow 11th and 12th grade students to take courses, free of charge, for high school or college credit at community or technical colleges. Students enrolled in a private school or in home schooling also may take advantage of this option.
The state has been in the spotlight since 1997, when Attorney General Christine Gregoire filed a lawsuit against the Washington Education Association (WEA). The suit charged that the WEA had committed multiple violations of campaign finance law in the 1996 campaign to oppose statewide charter school and voucher initiatives.
Among the violations were the failure to correctly report hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and concealing the fact that the NEA employed highly paid political operatives and funneled $410,000 through the WEA to oppose the 1996 ballot initiatives on charter schools and vouchers. For these violations, the WEA and some officials were fined more than $108,300 and the union was ordered to return a share of a $330,000 repayment to each member.
One charge that was not addressed was that the WEA's actions had violated Washington State's "paycheck protection" statute requiring annual written authorization before a payroll deduction can be diverted for political contributions. Instead, the Attorney General prepared guidelines interpreting the paycheck protection statute so as not to apply to labor organizations using general dues for election campaign contributions.
These permissive guidelines helped the ailing union. Contributions to the WEA's political action committee had dropped off dramatically after the violations came to light: The union reported that more than 85 percent of the state's public school teachers refused to contribute to the PAC. The guidelines now allow the WEA to supplement PAC contribution losses with mandatory dues from its members.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation and Teachers for a Responsible Union filed a lawsuit charging the WEA had violated the paycheck protection law by diverting employee payroll deductions to political campaigns without members' permission. The lawsuit claimed that the union's political activities were so extensive that it had violated public disclosure laws governing PACs. In August 1999, a lower court ruled that, although the WEA had spent more money on campaigns than nearly all PACs, it was not obligated to disclose its financial activity as a political action committee. The decision was appealed by the foundation and the teachers.
After 32 months of motions, court appearances, and depositions, the WEA agreed in 2000 to drop its counterclaim lawsuit against the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.651 Meanwhile, state Attorney General Gregoire filed suit against the union for illegally using agency fees for political purposes. The maximum penalty is $10,000 per infraction--which brings the total fine to nearly $42 million.652
While admitting it had violated the law, the WEA blamed its actions on "technical accounting errors." ,/i>The state Public Disclosure Commission turned the case over to the Attorney General because the commission did not feel its penalty authority ($2,500) was sufficient given the size of the violation.653
The legislature held a hearing on H.B. 2019 and its companion S.B. 7901, which authorize the creation of charter schools, at the end of the 1998 session. Both bills died in committee despite broad support from the governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, a majority of House Democrats, and a majority of House and Senate Republicans. Not one of the nine Democrats on the Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to send the bill to the floor.
Charter school supporters in the legislature introduced a bill (H.B. 2415) in 2000 with new backing by Senator Julia Patterson (D). It would allow for the creation of 20 charter schools in districts with public school enrollments above 2,000. The charters would have fiscal and legal autonomy; they would receive 75 percent to 100 percent of a school's per-pupil funding, access to start-up grants, and local and state matching funds for facilities.
Under a procedural rule of the legislature, however, all bills had to pass either the House or Senate by 5:00 p.m. on February 15, 2000. Although the charter bill had been on the floor calendar for several days, it was not brought up for a vote. Thus, for the seventh consecutive year, the legislature failed to pass a charter school law. In response, the campaign for charters collected over 300,000 signatures to place the issue on the November 2000 ballot. The initiative was virtually identical to H.B. 2415, except that it authorized up to 20 charters a year for four years.
In October 2000, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction reported that only 23 percent of 4th graders had met the standards in the reading, writing, listening, and math portions of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). These appalling test results raise questions about how many students will meet the higher academic standards for high schoolers, who will be required to pass the 10th grade WASL to graduate in 2008.654
Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen entered the campaign to bring charter schools to Washington State through ballot Initiative 729. He promised financial support and hired a public relations firm to manage signature gathering for the initiative. He also promised major financial support once the initiative qualified for the ballot. Allen announced that he would donate $200,000 to another initiative, Initiative 728, which sought to increase funding for education in order to help raise student achievement, especially by lowering class size.655
As of November 2000, a wide range of newspapers had endorsed Initiative 729, including the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tacoma News Tribune, Spokane Spokesman-Review, Vancouver Columbian, Olympia Olympian, Wenatchee World, Walla Walla Union Bulletin, and Seattle Weekly. In addition, the initiative enjoyed bipartisan support from the co-speakers of the state House of Representatives, Frank Chopp (D) and Clyde Ballard (R). The initiative suffered a narrow defeat in the November ballot: 52 percent to 48 percent.
Despite that defeat, school choice advocates found the election results encouraging. In 1996, the charter school initiative won only 36 percent of the vote, and it did not win 40 percent of the votes in a single county. In 2000, the initiative won over 1 million votes, actually winning in several counties, and came very close to the 50 percent it needed for approval. Advocates hope to continue to educate the public about the benefits of charter schools and public school choice.656 In contrast, Initiative 728 passed with 72 percent of the vote, directing money from state budget surpluses back to the localities where school boards can use it to reduce class size, add learning opportunities outside the traditional school day, and fund other specified purposes.657
Seattle became one of the 40 "partner cities" of the Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) in 1998. The CSF is a $100 million foundation underwritten by entrepreneurs Ted Forstmann and John Walton. It matches money raised by Seattle residents to fund approximately 250 private scholarships for low-income students to attend a school of choice. The scholarships were awarded for a minimum of four years to children in grades K-8 the following year.658 On April 22, 1999, the CSF announced the recipients, who were selected randomly by computer-generated lottery. In Seattle and Tacoma, 250 scholarship recipients were chosen from 8,259 applicants.
Developments in 2001
The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle is planning a high school for high-achieving minority students who want to go to a four-year college. Kurt Lauer, a teacher at Cooper Elementary, who is trying to persuade the district to open innovative schools, has asked for permission to open a middle school similar to the KIPP Academies in Texas and New York. At KIPP Academies, once low-performing, low-income students are now achieving very high scores on standardized tests.659
The Children First Educational Foundation of Whatcom County is gearing for a second round of partial tuition scholarship awards to children who want to attend private school but cannot afford the tuition. The scholarships, financed largely by a local retired software services company owner, are based on family income. Last year, the foundation paid about 90 percent of tuition expenses for nine children. This year, it plans to award smaller amounts of money in order to give scholarships to more children.660
Three parental choice bills were introduced in 2001:
S.B. 5337 to authorize vouchers, or opportunity scholarships, worth up to $4,000 for students in low-performing schools to attend a private school or another public school in the same district. The bill did not receive a hearing before the cut-off date and died in committee.661
S.B. 5666 to create the Student Improvement Tuition Scholarship Program, which would allow any child experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties in a public school to receive a voucher to attend any private school approved by the state Board of Education. The bill died in committee but may be reconsidered in 2002.
The Senate rejected efforts to attach a voucher amendment to a school reform bill during consideration of the measure. The amendment would have authorized $4,000 taxpayer-financed vouchers to go to students who attend schools that perform poorly for three consecutive years.
Angered by state education plans, about 5,000 teachers in Seattle and three suburban districts staged a one-day walkout in May, effectively shutting down classes for 70,000 students. Ironically, the president of the Seattle Education Association, John Dunn, claimed "we're doing this because every day our students are being shortchanged." The teachers were protesting the amount of money set aside for education in state budget proposals. In November 2000, Washington voters approved an education initiative mandating annual cost-of-living raises for school employees. But the spending plans provided raises only for school employees paid by the state, leaving school districts to cover the rest.662
Position of the Governor / Composition of the State Legislature
Governor Gary Locke, a Democrat, supports charter schools. The Senate is controlled by Democrats. Power is shared in the House because of a 49 to 49 tie. |
