Washington State Education Advocates and Leaders Visit Some of the Best
By Emily Roley Merrill, DFER Washington Interim Director
Last week, a terrific group of Washingtonians traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit several high-performing public charter schools. Our delegation toured KIPP Heartwood Academy, Downtown College Preparatory, Rocketship Si Se Puede Academy, Summit Preparatory Charter High School, East Palo Alto Charter School, and East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy.
In 2004, Washington’s legislature approved a modest charter school law that was signed by then Governor Gary Locke (Obama’s 1st Commerce Secretary, now the US Ambassador to China). Unfortunately, the forces at bat for maintaining the status quo successfully passed a statewide referendum to prevent the law from ever going into effect. Fortunately, a lot has changed in the past seven years and efforts to pass a public charter school law are once again gaining momentum in the state, this time led largely by left-leaning activists and organizations.