Charter school complaint to be heard Friday in King County Superior Court

New funding scheme is a ‘shell game’ that doesn’t fix ‘constitutional defects’

Charter schools are privately run but publicly funded.

King County Superior Court Judge John Chun will hear the latest lawsuit against the state’s new charter school law Friday, Jan. 27, at 1:30 pm.

A broad coalition of parents, educators, school administrators and civic groups filed the complaint challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new charter school law, which the Washington Legislature approved last year.

The hearing is in King County Superior Court, 516 3rd Ave, Room C-203, Seattle.

In addition to several other charges, the complaint alleges the new law violates the state constitution by diverting public funding to privately run charter schools that are unaccountable to Washington voters.

In 2015, the Washington Supreme Court overturned a similar charter school law on the same grounds. The new law, approved during the 2016 legislative session, has the same constitutional flaws that caused the Supreme Court to strike down the original law.

The legal complaint states that the new law continues “the diversion of public funds to charter schools “and that the constitutional defects in the original law “cannot be overcome by this type of shell game.”