Charter public schools need fair funding to serve the students they were designed to benefit

Charter public schools were first established in 2012 in this state with the intent of being laboratories of innovation within our public education system and providing a public school option for the many educationally disadvantaged students in our schools. Here in Washington state, our charter public school law has an added emphasis on designing schools for students who have been systemically marginalized in our traditional education systems.

Charter public schools have proven to be an attractive option — and in many cases, a lifeline — for many Black families and other students of color, limited income families, culturally and linguistically diverse families, and students with disabilities.

I have met parents whose elementary school children, including those of kindergarten age, have been expelled or otherwise failed by “one size fits all” traditional public schools. These families sought refuge in charter public schools that refused to give up on their children. At their charter schools, these children are thriving, growing and achieving academically, socially, and emotionally in culturally inclusive learning environments.

The simple fact is that charter public schools serve disproportionately higher percentages of Black children and other students of color, and students from limited-income households because they are giving families what they need. Since the pandemic shut down in-person learning in March 2020, charter schools have apparently become even more attractive to families who have historically been marginalized in our school systems. Charter public school enrollment jumped 35 percent between spring and fall 2020, while statewide, traditional enrollment was down 3 percent.

Charter schools have invited parents in, shown them they matter, and shown them respect. It is no surprise, then, that they have seen high levels of parental engagement, and have created opportunities for parents’ voices to be inserted into policy decisions.

And Washington’s charters are delivering impressive results: 99 percent of graduates from our charter public schools have been accepted to college, according to Summit Public Schools Washington data of the graduating charter public school classes of 2019 and 2020. Many of these graduates are first generation college-goers. Our state’s charters have done an impressive job of helping demystify and navigate the college application, acceptance, and financial aid processes.

Charter schools have proven to be a critical alternative for so many of our students who have been disenfranchised and marginalized in our traditional systems. And yet, right now, basic funding fairness is being denied to charter public school students, whose educations are funded between $1,500 to $3,000 less than those of their peers at traditional public schools, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instructions F-195 Apportionment and Financial Services reports. This is unacceptable.

We must connect the dots! Because charter public schools educate higher percentages of Black students, other students of color, and students from low-income households than traditional public schools, this funding gap means fewer resources for students who need that funding most.

This structural inequity is an unfair holdover from the historical educational inequity that Black and other students of color, students from lower-income families, linguistically diverse students, and students with disabilities have long faced in the public school system due to institutional and systemic racism.

If Washington legislators believe in securing equity and righting the wrongs created by our historically unfair systems, they will take the current legislative session as an opportunity to finally narrow the charter public school funding gap.

Dr. Thelma Jackson is a former North Thurston school board member and five-time board president (1977-1997), and served as president of the Washington State School Directors Association. She is the former board chair of The Evergreen State College, the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs, and SOAR Academy. She also was a founding member and executive director of the Black Education Strategies Roundtable.

This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 5:45 AM.