Seattle School Board member Sally Soriano testified against charter schools yesterday at a hearing of the Washington House Appropriations Committee [audio at 37:15]
As it currently stands in the wording of the bill, charters and conversions have no mechanism to ensure accountability to the public. The allocation of taxpayer money for educating our students is an enormous public responsibility. The Seattle School Board follows strict state budgeting regulations. These include open budget hearings, ongoing public input on substantive policy issues as well as continual administrative oversight of our critical infrastructure.The Seattle School District enjoyed a $33 million budget deficit last school year. Now, under Sally Soriano's watchful eye, it has a brand new $4.5 million deficit. The Seattle School District also interprets "public accountability" to mean telling the public that a school tax increase is not an increase.
I'm willing to accept charter schools only if they DON'T have the same fiscal mechanisms that the Seattle School Board uses.
I had the pleasure of meeting Sally Soriano a few weeks ago. She told me proudly that she was elected with "very strong electoral support".
"No you weren't," I shot back. "Only 17% of the registered voters bothered to vote for you."
Her face collapsed as if she were learning this for the first time.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 05, 2004 07:01 AMThe single-most important public expenditure is for schools. Unfortunately, most people don't care enough to vote or learn about how their money is being put to use. If our communities aren't being held accountable for our schools, how will our schools ever have accountability to our communities?
Posted by: ipsofacto on February 5, 2004 08:49 PM