ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Washington State as a case to illustrate how charter schools are fundamentally and purposefully anti-democratic. Washington State charter school story is unique because, unlike the majority of other states, we have resisted the legalization of charter schools for two decades. Further, the Washington State story is illustrative because it highlights the particularly anti-democratic impulses behind charter school reform, specifically relative to the political-economic agenda of those seeking to redefine public education in terms more favorable to privatization projects. The Washington State Supreme Court's ruling against charter schools is a major rebuke of the privatization agenda. First Place Scholars was the very first charter school to open in Washington State, and in many ways, it was the perfect example of the charter school promise. First Place Scholars was a conversion from an existing school that had previously been funded by other sources, and it also laudably served a very important and vulnerable population: homeless children.
