Charter-school contributions climb

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Big money continues to roll into the charter-school measure that is on the Nov. 2 ballot, with a total of $4.8 million raised so far by both sides.

Referendum 55 supporters, who back charter schools, have raised a total of $3.8 million. Most of that comes from three people: roughly $1 million each from Bill Gates; Don Fisher (co-founder of Gap, Inc.); and John Walton of the family that owns Wal-Mart.

Opponents of charter schools have raised about $1.2 million in cash and in-kind donations, mostly from the Washington Education Association ($552,000) and the union's parent organization, the National Education Association ($500,000).

Together, that's more money being spent on this ballot measure than on any other this year, with the exception of the electronic slot machine gambling initiative, Initiative 892.

The charter-school fight is over a law that the state Legislature passed last spring. A yes vote would uphold the law, and allow the creation of up to 45 charter schools over the next six years. A no vote would repeal the law.

In dollar terms, it's a battle between the billionaires and big unions. Monday was the last day that initiative campaigns could receive more than $5,000 from any one source, and both sides have recently logged some large donations.

The race is attracting many more dollars than the other education measure on the ballot, Initiative 884. That initiative seeks to raise the state sales tax to 7.5 percent from 6.5 percent to create an education trust fund of $1 billion. Supporters have raised about $2 million to date.

The fact that Referendum 55 supporters have more money surprises and dismays some education advocates.

"Initiative 884 has the potential to help all schools and thus all kids," said Gary Kipp, executive director of the Association of Washington School Principals, which is neutral on Referendum 55. "The charter schools, no matter which side you land on ... is really for a small slice of kids."

It also makes some think there's something more at stake than a few charter schools.
 
Many of the donors "are pretty well-known supporters of charter schools around the country," said Kelly Evans, campaign manager for Protect Our Public Schools, which opposes charter schools.

"I would bet they're very concerned about voters saying no to charter schools in Washington state for the third time. It could be the beginning of a tide turning against them."

She said she knew that the anti-charter side would be outspent when she saw ads supporting charter schools on the air 10 weeks before the election. No one goes on the air that soon without money to continue throughout the campaign, she said.

The anti-charter side is banking more on its people resources — the thousands of teachers who talk to neighbors and parents in their schools.

The anti-charter camp has many small contributors but some big ones, as well, including the American Federation of Teachers ($55,000) and the Seattle Education Association ($20,000).

Steve Mullin, spokesman for Approve Referendum 55, said his side is attracting donations because of concern about the dropout rate, from people who think charters can help reduce it. He noted that Fisher and Walton, although they don't live here, have businesses here.

And he said the campaign knew it wanted to get its advertisements out early because its polling showed that the more people know about charter schools, the more they support them.

The campaign has 37 cash donations, of which 15 are $100,000 or more. Besides Fisher, Gates and Walton, the bigger donors include: Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com ($100,000); and Paul Allen ($100,000) through his former campaign organization, Good Choices for Public Schools. They also include a number of California businessmen and education activists: Eli Broad ($200,000), Reed Hastings ($190,000); and John Doerr ($100,000).

State voters rejected charter-school initiatives in 1996 and 2000. The 2000 initiative was bankrolled with more than $3 million from Allen, who founded Microsoft with Gates.