On March 2, the Seattle School Board approved a resolution reaffirming its commitment to public education and its opposition to charter schools.

This updates a resolution passed by a previous Board in 2012 in response to Initiative 1240 (which established charter schools in Washington State and which a majority of Seattle voters did not support), and now reflects a number of new developments, including:

• The State Supreme Court’s September 2015 decision which found the charter law unconstitutional;
• the Court’s September 2014 ruling that found the State in contempt for its continued failure to meet its paramount duty to amply fund K-12 public education in Washington State, as reaffirmed by the 2012 McCleary decision;
• Recent efforts by the State and local districts to continue to publicly fund charter schools by reclassifying them as Alternative Learning Experiences (ALEs) and channeling their funding and oversight through the Mary Walker School District in Eastern Washington.

The vote was 5-2 in favor, and included an amendment from Director Jill Geary (Burke, Geary, Harris, Patu, Peters; Blanford, Pinkham).

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Click to access 20160302_Action_Report_Resolution201516-13_Charter_PACKET.pdf

Click to access 20160302_Action_Report_Amendment_Geary_Charter.pdf