Keep charter schools out of Washington

I am gratified that Washington does not allow charter schools. I am equally alarmed to learn that the PTA wants them. [“PTA wants state to reconsider charter schools,” seattletimes.com, Oct. 20.]

Studies show that these schools, on the whole, are not the panacea they claim to be and that they actually harm our public-school system by siphoning off motivated students, enticing the poor with a lottery scheme, and rejecting English-language learners and special-education students.

We need to give all children an equal opportunity for a good education. The much-studied charter-school system just does not measure up to the good old-fashioned public-school system. I should know. I spent 35 years teaching in it, and now am volunteering my services in my neighborhood schools.

Diane Ravitch, in “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” cautions that a preponderance of charter schools in competition with public schools will result in a two-tiered school system that will be unfair for our children and our nation. I hope Washington continues its ban on charter schools and elects school board members who are opposed to them.

— Jo Ellen Raymaker, Bremerton

MLK school sale one of many bad ideas

In what was described as a “successful program using state and city funding,” the former Martin Luther King Elementary School was sold for $2.4 million instead of the $9.7 million offered by The Bush School. [“Audit finds no wrongdoing in sale of school to church,” NWTuesday, Oct. 25.]

If this is one of the successful programs, two questions immediately come to mind: Just how bad are the unsuccessful programs? And, just who are these idiots dreaming up and implementing these programs?

— Jeff Ackles, Seattle