A legal challenge to Washington state’s new law allowing the creation of charter schools has been filed by a state teachers’ union and a coalition of other groups concerned about the constitutionality of the measure approved by voters last November.
The Washington Education Association’s complaint was filed with state Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Feb. 27 and asks him to investigate and “promptly institute legal proceedings to remedy the constitutional violations” within the charter school law, which would allow up to 40 charter schools to open over five years.
The complaint argues that the new charter law interferes with the state’s “paramount duty” to provide for public education. The coalition maintains that the state is already under a 2012 state Supreme Court order to overhaul its K-12 funding system, but that the Charter School Act will divert already insufficient resources away from public school districts.
