Gov. Inslee refuses to sign charter school bill, but it still becomes law

Much like an episode of Seinfeld, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s response to the highly anticipated charter school legislation had a lot to do with nothing.

Washington’s 2012 voter-approved charter school law ran afoul of the state’s supreme court, which concluded that the schools could not be funded via the same funding method as public schools. This left many charter schools, already up and running, without funding.

In response, Washington lawmakers passed a bill, Substitute Senate Bill 6194, last session that would allow for funding in a different manner. All that was left was for Governor Jay Inslee to sign it.

Inslee has decided not to sign it into law, however, the governor has opted to allow the bill to become law without his signature. It is a legal move that hasn’t been used since 1981, but will allow the state’s charter schools to be funded.

Inslee said Friday that his primary concern with the charter school bill is that it lacks the oversight that public schools have with school boards.

I am not interested in closing schools in a manner that disrupts the education of hundreds of students and their affected families … However, I remain deeply concerned about the public accountability and oversight provisions of this bill. At its foundation, our public school system relies upon locally elected boards to oversee the expenditures of taxpayer money. This bill provides an option for similar oversight, but would ultimately allow unelected boards to make decisions about how to spend public money.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.