Charter schools provide one path—among several others—to quality education for a segment of students, and Washington state lawmakers deserve kudos for addressing issues that placed charter schools at odds with the state Constitution. 

While charter schools could face additional legal challenges, it’s encouraging to see our elected leaders demonstrate the political will to maintain that important K-12 education option in Washington state, an option that 42 other states also offer. 

Though we applaud the efforts of legislators, it would have been ideal to see Gov. Jay Inslee take a more pronounced stance on the subject. Rather than signing the bill, Inslee took the unconventional route of returning the bill unsigned to Washington state Secretary of State Kim Wyman, allowing it to become law without his signature. 

In a letter to Wyman sent earlier this month, Inslee said that he was allowing the bill to become law because he didn’t want to close charter schools and disrupt the education of hundreds of students statewide. However, Inslee went on to say he’s “deeply concerned about the public accountability and oversight provisions of this bill.” 

The bill provides an oversight similar to that of an elected public school board, but ultimately would enable unelected boards to allocate public money, Inslee says in his letter. 

Whether that concern is warranted is debatable, but what’s certain is that the benefits of the alternative school model outweigh concerns. 

While the charter schools bill received bipartisan support, many Democratic legislators reportedly struggled with the subject due to staunch opposition by the Washington Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union. 

The union argued that the state’s first priority should be to come into compliance with the 2012 McCleary Supreme Court decision and fully fund public education. That argument holds little weight, since addressing the McCleary decision and supporting charter schools aren’t in conflict with each other. 

Opponents of charter schools paint a picture of them as a detractor from conventional K-12 education, rather than an expansion of educational opportunities in a community. In some cases, the schools are talked about as elitist and exclusive, which doesn’t match reality. 

Some charters schools, such as Spokane’s Pride Prep, host lotteries to fill open positions. Statewide, charter schools are reported to have a greater percentage of minority students than public schools as a whole. They also host a greater percentage of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. Those facts hardly match up with perceptions of elitists siphoning public funds for private-like schools. 

The reality is that charter schools are public schools, just like other public schools that simply offer a different educational approach.

Charter schools needn’t be a polarizing political issue. We’re glad the majority of state legislators were able to see that.