A bill that would allow charter schools, including Excel Public Charter School in Kent, to operate in Washington passed the Senate last week and moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Senate Bill 6194, which was introduced by Sens. Steve Litzow, R–Mercer Island; Mark Mullet, D–Issaquah; Joe Fain, R–Auburn; and Steve Hobbs, D–Lake Stevens, was approved 27-20 in the Senate on Jan. 22.
In September, the state Supreme Court ruled charter schools, which were approved by voters in 2012, unconstitutional and ineligible for state funding. On Nov. 19, the court denied motions by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the Washington State Charter Schools Association to reconsider the ruling.
Senate Bill 6194 would direct charter school funding to come from the state’s Opportunity Pathways Account, which contains state lottery revenues not restricted to common schools.
Excel, which opened in August, serving sixth- and seventh-grade students with hopes of expanding to grades 6-12, has been operating as an Alternative Learning Experience though an agreement with Mary Walker School District in Springdale north of Spokane since Dec. 14, when charter schools ceased to exist because of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
State Sens. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, and Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, introduced a bill that would put charters schools under the authority of local school districts, instead of being governed solely by an appointed school board. That bill did not pass out of the Senate Education Committee.
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