Filtering the Stranger's Charter School Opinion Through an Equity Lens

By Matt Halvorson

“The Democrats are cowards.”
-Ansel Herz
From "Washington Public Schools Are Criminally Underfunded, But Governor Inslee Won't Commit to Vetoing Charter School Law," published March 11, 2016 by The Stranger

Maybe, but these days, so is The Stranger. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing when it comes to race and equity, a white moderate dressed up as a progressive.

“The bill would divert revenues from the state lottery to privatized schools.”
-Ansel Herz

Charter schools are public schools that are allowed to operate within slightly different (and, in Washington, more highly scrutinized) parameters than traditional public schools.

They exist in our state to serve populations the existing public school system is failing to adequately educate: primarily students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, as well as a large number of students with special needs.

Students of color and/or from low-income families typically attend schools with fewer resources while facing more biases, more barriers and lower expectations than their more affluent peers. It’s called the opportunity gap.

Now, let’s be clear: unless you believe that students of color are inherently less capable of learning than white kids, and are thus operating from a position of open racism, then we acknowledge together that something in the system is producing these inequitable results. Right?

Because, come on. We all know by now that humans are humans, kids are kids, and every student can learn. If we disagree here, just stop.

The opportunity gap in our “progressive” city and our state is one of the worst in the country. Seattle Public Schools came under scrutiny just a few years ago for its disproportionate discipline of black boys. We rolled back Brown v. Board of Education a few years before that, and we we now have a thriving tuition-based private school system and a largely segregated public school system.

It is an unfair system producing unfair results.

Charter schools give families an alternative to this unfair system even if they can’t afford private school.

So, as you argue against charter schools moving forward, you are arguing against free public schools designed specifically to reach our most vulnerable, historically oppressed populations — the same students we know are being failed by the existing public school system. Just so we're clear.

Charter schools operate on public funding because they are, in fact, public schools. As such, funding charter schools and funding the public school system are not oppositional things. By perpetuating that myth, you are simply echoing the loudest, most privileged voice in the room.

They are different than neighborhood schools in certain ways, but we don’t degrade alternative schools or magnet schools as being “privatized.” They are simply different pathways through the public school system, as are charters.

The entire charter school system came under attack this year through a calculated maneuver by the Washington Education Association (WEA) — the state’s teachers union. Much of the language in the Supreme Court ruling last September finding charter schools unconstitutional was lifted directly from pieces drafted by the WEA.

The teacher’s union is extremely invested in the status quo. But as we know, the status quo is producing discriminatory results. So, at some point, if things are going to change for students of color, the status quo will have to change. It will have to be upset.

Call it privatized if you want to, but however you paint it, the point is that charter schools are different. And when your union's ideology begins and ends with the status quo, different is bad. Their mission, admitted or not, is to preserve the core sameness of their profession.

What if some charter schools "work"? What if charter schools successfully teach kids whose brothers and sisters are being failed by the status quo? What if kids deemed problematic by the status quo find their footing at a charter school?

The union is so threatened by change that it can't even let that question be asked. Even asking upsets the prevailing narratives enough to rock the boat. What if poverty isn't insurmountable when it comes to education? What if the majority of our teachers do unknowingly equate blackness with danger?

The union flexed its political muscle to try to keep from finding out.

Sen. Frank Chopp’s decision to pull the charter school bill for a floor vote was “an unusual move,” like you said.

Facing public and political pressure, Chopp eventually told Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, chair of the ed committee and a known charter opponent, to just pull the bill for a vote in committee.

She refused, thus forcing Chopp to choose between making this “unusual move” or simply letting the charter school bill die at Santos’ hands.

But your only source is “watchdog” Melissa Westbrook, a white, upper-middle-class blogger who "watches" from a million-dollar home in a mostly white North Seattle neighborhood. What do you think her take is going to be on diverting public funds to schools that serve primarily students of color in low-income neighborhoods?

So, Stranger, it’s time to decide.

Are you the voice of the white moderate? Or are you something more than that?

Should Gov. Inslee veto the charter school bill and side with the status quo? Should he listen to Melissa Westbrook, listen to the union, and shut down the charter school movement?

Or should Gov. Inslee sign the charter school bill? Should he preserve this system of schools that exists to increase equity in education?

Should he do it even if a majority of his white constituents oppose it?