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There are NO charter schools in Washington, but here's what you can do
It's been five years since our charter school law was repealed by referendum. For the first time since 2004, there is a realistic chance to bring the choice of charter public schools to Washington State. Click here to read what you can do... more

Video Links category added to the website
We've added a video links category to the website where site's visitors can view relevant charter school information... more

Seattle Times, January 16, 2012
Education reform proposals, including charters, could improve Washington state
 Education reforms proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire and the state Legislature should gain traction. Charter schools and better principal and teacher evaluations are critical improvements. A SLEW of education reforms proposed to the state Legislature signal a chance to get real work done this session..... more [Return to Top]
Seattle Times, December 23 2011
Other cities might help Seattle close achievement gaps among black students
 AFRICAN-American students are lagging behind other students, including other black ethnic students whose home language is not English, according to new numbers released by Seattle Public Schools. ["'Alarming' new test-score gap discovered in Seattle schools," page one, Dec. 19.] This is an important problem that other cities have confronted head-on. First, they have admitted they really don't know how to solve the problem. Second, they acknowledge that the normal remedies school districts use to solve achievement problems are too weak to work.... more [Return to Top]
Education & the Work Force, September 1, 2011
UPDATED: H.R. 2218, The Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act
Updated to reflect bill text for House consideration. -- WASHINGTON, D.C. | September 1, 2011 -
THE PROBLEM: Charter schools empower parents to play a more active role in their child’s education, open doors for teachers to pioneer fresh teaching methods, encourage state and local innovation, and help students escape underperforming schools. Despite high demand and an estimated 420,000 students on charter school wait lists, significant barriers to quality charter school growth exist... more [Return to Top]
City Journal, June 10, 2011
Immune to Reform
Last fall, I took my wife—a well-informed, intelligent professional who unintentionally married into the contentious world of education reform—to see Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about the plight of America’s public schools, Waiting for Superman. She left the theater convinced that our schools face clear problems that have some clear solutions. But she was puzzled about why reforming the system was so difficult. She knew that the teachers’ unions had something to do with what was wrong with the schools, but just how they wielded so much power baffled her... more [Return to Top]
CBS News, August 24, 2010
Race to Top Education Grants Announced (click to watch CBS News video clip)
At a time of strapped school budgets, educators had a shot at grants worth from $75 million to $700 million per state. Nancy Cordes reports on the top winners and how the funds will be used in the winning states... more [Return to Top]
The News Tribune, June 2, 2010
Race to Top application in
OLYMPIA – With about 90 percent of districts signed on statewide, Washington joined 34 other states and the District of Columbia and met the deadline to apply for money in the second round of the federal Race to the Top competition... more[Return to Top]
Education Week , May 21, 2010
Colorado Overhauls Teacher Tenure System
Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday signed a bill that will require teachers to be judged on the performance of their students and put their jobs on the line if they fail... more [Return to Top]
New York Times , May 17, 2010
The Teachers’ Unions’ Last Stand
MICHAEL MULGREW is an affable former Brooklyn vocational-high-school teacher who took over last year as head of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers when his predecessor, Randi Weingarten, moved to Washington to run the national American Federation of Teachers. Over breakfast in March, we talked about a movement spreading across the country to hold public-school teachers accountable by compensating, promoting or even removing them according to the results they produce in class, as measured in part by student test scores... more [Return to Top]
HeraldNet.com, October 21 , 2009
Washington shouldn't say no to schools innovation
The $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund provides a powerful incentive for Washington to join the education mainstream. More discretionary money than the feds have ever made available, the funds will be awarded to states to spur and support eduction reform... more [Return to Top]
Editorial: wsj.com, November 4 , 2009
No Child Left Behind
Opponents of school choice are running out of excuses as evidence continues to roll in about the positive impact of charter schools... more

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Editorial: contracostatimes.com, September 28, 2009
Research shows charter schools can excel
ONE OF THE long-standing misperceptions about charter schools is that they cherry-pick the better students from an area, resulting in higher test scores than in comparable regular public schools... more [Return to Top]
theolympian.com, September 15, 2009
Charter school debate is worth revisiting
This state’s steadfast refusal to allow charter schools is going to have a financial consequence. Washington is one of 11 states without charter schools, and that puts this state at the back of the line when it comes to receiving more than $4 billion in federal education grants... more [Return to Top]
FOR RELEASE: July 29, 2009
U.S. Education Department awards $82 million in charter school grants to five states to increase public school options
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) today announced the award of five charter school grants, totaling $82 million, to state education agencies in Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Tennessee and Wisconsin to increase public school options in those states... more [Return to Top]
Important charter school news from around the country
We're adding charter school related news articles to our website. Click to read National, Washington, or Op-Ed pieces... more [Return to Top]

Studies, Reports, & Studies
The Factory: At the Pacific Rim charter schools, they make scholars
Jump-Starting the Charter School Movement: Strategic Grantmaking in Education
Non-partisan analysis of Referendum 55
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