By Jerry Cornfield
(From The Herald, January 29th, 2013)
OLYMPIA — The charter school law approved by voters in November is one of the country’s best in its embrace of the publicly funded, privately run schools, according to a new national report.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ranked Washingtons law as the third strongest of those in place in the states, which allow for the alternate form of educating students with public funds. Washington trailed only Minnesota and Maine in the fourth annual ranking by the national organization.
Part of the reason is the language in Initiative 1240, which the state’s voters narrowly passed, hews closely to most of the elements in the model charter school law developed by the national group.
As a result, charters in this state could wind operating with as much or more flexibility, access to funding and accountability than is now taking place in 41 other states and the District of Columbia.
“Washington took strong advantage of the lessons learned from other states on strong authorizing, oversight and accountability. We will be leading with quality,” said Lisa Macfarlane, director of Democrats for Education Reform, in a statement released by the national alliance.
The report scores each of the charter school laws on how they stack up against 20 components deemed essential by the national charter school group.
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