Other People's Policy

This chapter discusses the campaign to pass charter schools into law in Washington State as an illustrative example of the elite interests invested in charter school reform. Initiative 1240 is thus, literally, "other people's policy" in that wealthy elites are shaping education policy for other people's children. In this sense, representation of the campaign network fails to capture the relative weight of the relationships. The corporate education reformers seized the opportunity presented by charter schools and worked to build a strong coalition of both major political parties. Cash and in-kind contributions to the Yes On 1240 campaign were tracked using the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission database. Leading up to election day Partnership for Learning (2012), working with researchers from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). Locally and nationally, charter schools and charter school policy have been offered by proponents as a cure for ameliorating educational inequalities around race and economic class.