As K-12 educators and children across the state head back to school, the traditional comradery and excitement that the beginning of the school year brings will be overshadowed by a fear of this being the final year for those currently attending state-funded charter schools.

Despite the voter-approved initiative in 2012, the state Supreme Court earlier this month ruled the public funding of charter schools to be unconstitutional in the state of Washington.

Charter schools are the fix to the broken education system in the United States, and the state of Washington is completely rejecting such advances and choosing to run students through a subpar educational system.

Charter schools are independently managed public schools operated by approved nonprofit organizations which are similar to public schools, but have the freedom to be more innovative, according to the Washington State Charter Schools Association’s website.

Tariq Akmal, interim chair of the Department of Teaching & Learning at WSU, said that every charter school is different and generalizing them is not completely fair.

Akmal said charter schools can be effective in a specific area, but when the concept of that school is taken and applied across the country, the school could be a complete failure. Akmal was confident, however, that this issue is far from over, due to there being both very passionate proponents and opponent at play.

Because they are such a new concept, there is a lack of data and statistics on charter schools and it is hard to be objective about their consequences.

However, it seems that there is an agreement among many that the educational system in the United States is outdated and needs to be updated.

Charter schools are the update that the educational system needs.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, charter schools are currently practiced in 43 states and nationally make up 6.2 percent of public schools in the United States.

Charter schools are still in their infancy when observed on a large scale, but it is clear that they are already making a significant impact on education nationwide. 

It is also fair to mention that charter schools were, in fact, voter approved. The people of Washington also believe that this is a legitimate form of public education which deserves funding, and expressed this in 2012 by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent.

This is a very important argument because, ultimately, both sides want what is best for the students of Washington, and, as Akmal ended his interview with, “we’ll see what happens.”   

Philip Grossenbacher is a sophomore studying English education from Lynwood. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this Column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of The Office of Student Media.