Hell no. The entire board, the superintendent and the central staff need to go if they're considering this: every single involved party. Entire public schools are in physical disrepair and now THIS? Hell no. Not one $0.01 taken from public school kids into a for-profit scam. Never.

Possibly I give people too much credit, but even if the board staunchly opposes charter schools don't they need a plan for how to deal with demands and legal challenges?

...just please keep this argument in mind when you complain about towns around the state banning the sale of marijuana under I-502. Mind you, I voted against charter schools but the majority of state voters did pass it.

Oh hell no

There are some SPS staff and SB members (both past and present) who very much want to see charter schools so they can get their fingers in the money pot. Admin salaries at charter schools easily outstrip public school admins, and it's much easier to move money around without accountability in charters. Just look at the millions being funneled to the Gulen sect via charter schools. Or the millions made by the Charter Schools USA founders and higher-ups who buy yachts (Fishin 4 Schools). Even Eva Moskowitz pulls down over $400k for "managing" her 17 or so Success Academy charter schools, well-known for bumping out special ed kids and other public school kids/programs from their own public school buildings.
The corruption in Chicago Public Schools under Mayor Rahm the neoliberal is astronomical - public schools being starved for cash and run out of their buildings so that charter schools can take over and his buddies whom he picked for the Chicago School Board can pocket public monies for their personal gain. Rahm says CPS is so broke, that's why he had to close a record number of schools, yet he could pony up cash for a NEW! charter high school to be built in an area that will benefit the rich white kids, and name it after Barack Obama, not to mention the pesky little stadium he magically found the money for.
In Seattle, there are SPS admins in cahoots with Alliance 4 Ed, LEV, Gates Foundation, the City of Seattle - they'd all like to divert public funds into charter schools, cherry-pick their kids, then claim charters are the best way to educate kids even though all the peer-reviewed research either states the opposite or is neutral as to whether there a benefit to charters besides segregating kids (in Utah, this is seen as a huge benefit of charters - keep your kids away from the brown non-Mormon riff-raff). Then they get to be in the "in" crowd in Ed Deform-land, be guest speakers for the Miracle in Seattle storyline they are hoping for (Google the New Orleans Miracle or the Texas Miracle for the reference there if you missed it), maybe land that coveted spot at the Gates Foundation with other Ed Deformers and TFA washups who either never taught or can't teach, but sure are good at trying to tell teachers how to teach. They can grease their palms with the likes of ex-TFA-ex-UW-Dean Tom Stritikus (how is that exclusive TFA program doing at UW, BTW?), or Tom VanderArk who has run a couple of charter school cons back east, or magical reformer Terrance Carter of the fake PhD http://dianeravitch.net/2014/08/02/jon-l… or the founders of the FUSE/Jumoke charter schools in Connecticut.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/…
To these SPS staffers and current/former SB members, charter schools represent the ripe little apple just ready for picking. By the time Seattle and WA State catches on to the charter school scams, these people will be long gone.

For you, @6.
A 10 year study of the "charter school miracle" in New Orleans, where they got that "school choice".
http://books.google.com/books/about/Char…

Some choice. And the Ed Deformers all use the BS civil rights claim in their justification for school choice.

"Possibly I give people too much credit, but even if the board staunchly opposes charter schools don't they need a plan for how to deal with demands and legal challenges?"

But that's not what the Board Director(s) were asking. They just wanted to know the advantages and disadvantages. They were not asking for a plan or advice.

StuckinUtah is right; there is BIG money in charter schools. Even hedge funder managers like them as an investment.

Tying together - do you think the City's urge (and now the County's as we hear from Dow Constantine today in his own budget) for preschool and now this charter "interest" in SPS is a coincidence? Charters want to start to have preschool because, well, there's even more money

Do you think that this sudden push for mayoral takeover of the School Board is a coincidence?

And look here - Race to the Top for tots and Washington state wants a share of that pie.

Nope. That's why we watchdogs keep our eye on everything going on.

Melissa Westbrook

As usual, Melissa is - forgive me - on the money. Public education is the last big pot of money for corporate tycoons to roll around in, and they are anxious to get in there ASAP. When big bucks donors threw money at the last charter school initiative (after several previous attempts had gone down in flames), you had to wonder why, when they would never in a million years send their own kids to a charter school. Simple: there's gold in them thar charters.

Any school board member who pushes for charter schools in Seattle is going to be an EX School Board member.

Thought crime.

@9

Gotta love a book that critiques charter schools – and then does so on the basis of teacher tenure, union leverage, racial composition and control or resources – but scarcely a mention of actual student OUTCOMES!!!

In fact, the cost of education is down (-$2,000), while test scores, truancy, graduation rates and college acceptance are convincingly and steadily up.

http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/…

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0301/N…

Fact is, the US pubic education system is a comprehensively failed, sclerotic system of political patronage, racial favoritism and organized thievery.

Today, 40% or children in North Seattle attend private schools. You don't have a choice about charters or vouchers because, in fact, the school district is being abandoned by families. (Yes, growing as a consequence of rapid city growth, but crumbling as a share of total households – and therefore increasingly impotent as a political nexus.)

Charter schools (and vouchers) are manifestations of choice.

The choice liberals don't want individuals to exercise -- ironically.

This is yet another example of a central administration staff that is operating completely outside of Board control. The Board has lost all control of the staff - if they ever had it - because their governance model is totally broken.
It is broken because the Board has no tool or process for holding staff accountable. The staff doesn't have to do anything the Board tells them to do and is free to do whatever they like instead. The Board can't touch them because the Board's only management tool - the only one they have - is the superintendent's performance evaluation. The superintendent is free to disobey the Board all he wants - so long as he doesn't anger them so much that they are moved to fire him. Given the fact that the superintendent is already an interim on a limited contract, there's no risk of that. Even the long-term hires know that the Board is highly reluctant to fire a superintendent, leave the district without stable leadership, and go through a search for a new superintendent.
The Board has no control over the staff and, if the truth were told, they never did because the district's governance structure makes it impossible.

@14, Zok, I suspect that you are wrong in you conclusions - and you are - because you are wrong in your "facts" - and you are.

You tell us that " test scores, truancy, graduation rates and college acceptance are convincingly and steadily up" and then tell us that "the US pubic education system is a comprehensively failed... system"

The truth is that our schools, now as ever, do a great job of educating students who arrive at the school prepared, supported, and motivated and that our schools, now as ever, do a poor job of educating students who arrive at the school unprepared, unsupported, or unmotivated. To improve outcomes for students the schools and the front line staff in them will have to be given the mission, license, and resources to provide preparation, support, and motivation when it is lacking.

As for Seattle Public Schools, they are overcrowded because so many people are choosing them - especially in North Seattle. Enrollment is way up. Even more important, the retention rate between birth and kindergarten is way up. Seattle families, more than any other time in the past twenty years, are choosing to stay in Seattle and enroll their children in Seattle Public Schools.

Charter schools are not a manifestation of choice but an attempt to privatize a public service (and public assets) for private gain. Vouchers are madness promoted by people who don't think even two steps down the road.

There is nothing that charter schools can do for students that a public school can't do. There is nothing that can happen in a charter school classroom that cannot happen in a public school classroom. Seattle has a number of option schools that offer alternative pedagogy for families and students. There is no shortage of choice.

Finally, support for public education is not a conservative/liberal issue - only paying for it is. Liberals realize that you can't get something for nothing while conservatives are conned into believing that they can.

Student outcomes like these, @14?
http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/inve…
Or
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/01/2…

I'd love to know the data source of your 40% number for N Seattle kids.

And what you describe for the public school system - political patronage, racial favoritism, and organized thievery is precisely what the charter school scam is. Google White Hat charters in Ohio - fraud. Google the Gulen charters - being investigated by the FBI. Florida is charter scam heaven. http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/char…

As for vouchers? They've been available in Milwaukee for about 20 years. Absolute failure, especially when looking at outcomes.

http://host.madison.com/news/local/educa…

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/vo…

Fraud! http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/vo… and http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/l…

The libertarians wet dream of school choice is a load of crap. Most vouchers don't provide enough $$ to get a kid into a quality private school, so they end up with a fly-by-night private school, often religiously-based, with untrained teachers, substandard curriculum and poor facilities. Nor do good quality private schools want the voucher kids - usually low income, not the best test takers, more likely a child of color - and the money they get from the voucher program is not enough. They may accept a few "token" voucher kids, but that's it.

But the war against public schools and poor kids by libertarians, conservatives, and the neoliberal faction of the Democratic Party continues, regardless.
http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.p…

Jesus, you're quoting articles from the Editor of "The Progressive?" Might as well ask Kanye West to pick America's most influential people. Jesus you're own reference article says:

Longitudinal studies of the Milwaukee voucher program have found mixed results. In one study, voucher students did no better than peers in the public schools for four years, then outpaced them in reading — but not math — in the fifth year. In another, voucher students lagged behind their peers in reading, math and science in fourth grade and continued to lag in eighth- and 10th-grade math, though they did better in reading and science in the upper grades. Another study found voucher students were 3 percentage points more likely to graduate high school and persist past their freshman year in a four-year college.

Now re-read them, and you'll find that they are ALL NET IMPROVEMENTS, though the subjects and timing vary.

And, these are overall averages. What studies have found is that some students to far better in charter schools, while others do worse. So – if it was your kid – wouldn't you want to provide them the opportunity to get the best education for themselves in a charter -- or is your kid there to pull-up the average?

As for the fact that 40% of kids in North Seattle go to private schools? The Seattle Public Schools.

The acknowledge that its 28.6% DISTRICT wide. Much higher up North.

http://www.seattlepi.com/lists/slideshow…

@16

And what you fail to realize is the voucher system works astoundingly well in developed nations around the world whose educational outcomes FAR exceed ours - despite the fact that we spend 2x on the product.

But we're scared of choice. And when someone threatens the institutionalized mafia (WEA), they will go to the ends of Google to find for-profit companies that scammed charters in some far-off state, while ignoring the theft, criminal charges and cover ups by Silas Potter, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Don Kennedy, Joseph Olschefske, etc. in our own town.

Yes, schools in North Seattle are filling – but that's because North Seattle is filling. The question is what SHARE are public schools getting, and you'll find there is ASTONISHING dissatisfaction with what the DIstrict offers.

FORTY PERCENT of the north end pays TENS OF THOUSANDS to escape it!

How can liberals look at that statistic and think people are happy – or close to happy - or trending towards happy?

So aloof of Seattle's condescending liberals to send their own kids to private schools while keeping public schools students away from any opportunities for enhanced education with vouchers for charted schools. It really is indicative of their hypocrisy.

I've bought the product--two daughters now in High School--and I'm more than satisfied. They are getting a high quality education that will prepare them for success in college.

But 16 is exactly correct--they are successful because they are prepared for school and supported by a family that has high expectations. Students that lack this predictably do much more poorly in the exact same environment.

Let the charters do their thing, but require one thing--they have to take ALL the students that apply, just like the public system. Let's see how their supposed superior numbers look when they have to educate every slice of the demographic pie.

@20 You're tying yourself in knots. Here in America people can buy whatever the hell they want with their own money. There's no question of that.

However, you are asking for a handout. Which is fine, but those generally come with some restrictions. You can't use your food stamps to buy booze for example. For public schools, we provide the public schools directly so we don't need to provide school stamps.

Amen, 20. Rich liberals can go fuck themselves. If they would put their kids in public schools, bring their financial support and participation to those schools, they would improve. But their kids get one 'bad' teacher (probably not bad, just forces them to do their work and fails them if they don't) and they go private. That's helping a lot.

I agree with @3 that SPS needs a response. Bill and Melinda are two big proponents living in their backyard. Based on my limited experience, there is not proper control at the school board level, and that study almost certainly wouldn't be properly funded or conducted.

@16,

Are our schools "doing a great job" or are they in desperate need of more funding to a decent job? It seems to me it can't be both.

If the issue is the students aren't prepared to learn, then that calls for more investment, but not in the school system.

@20 you are full of shiiiiiit, and fuck you for your imbecilic insults. I have a child in public schools, and yet I am also not so dumb as to think that charter schools make things better. They don't, they are often worse. And there are also so many news out there about how corrupt these greedy schmuks that run charter schools are, I don't think they should be allowed anywhere near our kids.

"Longitudinal studies of the Milwaukee voucher program have found mixed results."

I call bullshit. Mixed results that skew to "it's not working."

I'll ask the district about that "40% of north end kids go to private" - tell that to the schools in our district that are the MOST overcrowded. Yup, the north end.

@ 23, well rich people - like Gates, Duncan and others - don't send their kids to public school. But, in Seattle, LOTS of middle class parents do and that's why PTAs in SPS support 23 full-time employees. Every single year. The reason there are two of the top high school jazz bands in the country? Parent boosters. Rising enrollment at Rainier Beach HIgh School? Parent boosters. Parents in Seattle Schools give a lot.

@25, nail on the head. Our state does not even fund our schools to the national AVERAGE. We're near the bottom (ditto on class size). And yet, in a recent study, WA state ranked 23 despite those terrible odds. Why? Parents and teachers who support their schools.

Fund SPS for five years to just the national average and watch what happens. (FYI states that do fund near the top - MA and New Jersey - have the highest test scores. Those that don't (and are right to work states with NO unions) - the worst test scores.)

You're a total sucker. There is no correlation between expense and outcome. You conveniently complain that we don't waste as much as New Jersey -- but miss the point that we spend vastly more than Canada, Germany, Ireland, Australia, etc... For shitty results. In fact expenditures FAR outpace inflation, yet the results STILL don't improve.

And @26

No --- Fuck you for saying your kid wouldn't be better off with more choices, when the system won't even give you a choice! You dumb fucking WEA Kool-Aid sucking tool of the system. Go ahead and convince yourself that somehow -- quite magically -- that the very best education opportunity for your kid JUST SO HAPPENS to be the one doled-out by Sovietesque central planning in a cluster near your home. What are the chances!

Believers in geography based education systems are like people who marry the first person they kissed, remain monogamous, and then want to give sex counseling.

Fools.

I fined it interesting that these "Watchdog" people who uncover these things typically through records requests complain about SPS spending time on other items like this one, yet never consider that each time a records request is made for something like "All email related to Charter Schools" those same people do not consider the time it take SPS central staff to respond to said records request.

These same watchdogs are also the ones who appear to be combative, disruptive and from what I see do not collaborate to solve the problem they see, do not work together with anyone to develop a solution, nor have I seen or heard them propose a solution.

It is easy to throw rocks, it is easy to complain, it is easy to beat your own chest, point and yell "SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING WRONG."

It is hard to work together, it is hard to get people who are impassioned to find the solutions which best meets the needs of the students, it is hard to put down the negativity and combative nature and work with those you don't see eye to eye.

Stop doing the easy work, stop bashing the board, the staff, and those who are trying to educate the children YOU had which YOU were to raise to be responsible learners. Stop expecting the school system to raise and manage your children when you are not doing a stellar job at everything yourself.

Be solution focused, collaborate with the education system, assume positive intent with those who are trying to educate the children you decided to bring into this world whom you then drop at the schools door every morning.

*find

There already is a charter school in Seattle: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Washi….

The Stranger's been so anti-charter I'm shocked you guys didn't cover it. I'm curious why that is.

Being reflexively against charter schools, despite the fact that poor people all over the country want more choices in education and value their local charter school, is inherently conservative. Believing that the public system just need more money in order to run good schools is as evidence-based as arguments against global warming and evolution.

I'm a pro-choice liberal. If good universal healthcare allows patients to choose their hospitals and doctors, then good universal education allows students and their families to choose their schools and teachers.

It's neither compassionate nor liberal to oppose giving poor families choices in their education.

For ideologues, providing quality education to poor students isn't nearly as important as preventing corporations from profiting from providing that education.

@33 @34

Game.
Set.
Match.

Families do not want more choices, they want better choices. Charter schools have not shown themselves to be a better choice. Seattle already offers families a lot of choices, so we're likely to see charter schools set up shop in other parts of the state where the school districts have not provided a similar range of options. The one charter school in Seattle has been a school for a long time; they switched from private to charter.

Charter schools are allowed in Washington, so there's no point arguing that anymore. For charter schools vs against charter schools - who cares? It's a settled issue. But let's not lie about the outcomes. The truth is that the majority of students do no better in a charter school than in a traditional public school. And that makes a lot of sense since all of the primary determinants of student achievement are home-based, not school-based. And it is not the school's ownership or governance model that impacts student outcomes - it's what happens in the classrooms. And there is nothing that a charter school can do for a student that a public school cannot do.

Vouchers is a dumb idea. It is predicated on the baseless belief that a bunch of new private schools will suddenly appear as soon as those vouchers are issued. Really? Where is this army of education entrepreneurs and teachers with suitable buildings who would make a private school if only families had government subsidized tuition? I'm not seeing it.

Zok has no real data to support his claims about families fleeing the north-end public schools. The real data shows that enrollments are way, way up - much more than the population - and that the ratio between the number of children who enter Seattle kindergarten vs the number of children born in Seattle five years earlier has risen dramatically. More families who have babies in Seattle are choosing to stay in Seattle when their children reach school age. The people who send their children to our public schools, when surveyed, report very high levels of satisfaction with their schools and their children's teachers. That's the data - the real data.

The schools are very good. The district leadership, on the other hand, is not. That is what this article was about. It was about a district staff that does a lot of work that they should not be doing and fails to do the work that they should be doing.