Union leaders brag about Hawthorne Elementary, a school with charter-like independence

Dennis Van Roekel, president of National Education Association union, visited Seattle’s Hawthorne Elementary School this week in recognition of the dramatic gains students have made since 2010, when Hawthorne become one of Seattle’s six Creative Approach schools.

Mr. Van Roekel said Washington state “shines as an example of education reform” because Hawthorne and similar schools involved teachers in the process of reinventing their schools. 

What Mr. Van Roekel may not realize is that the key to Hawthorne Elementary academic success is that it operates with many of the same advantages as a charter school, something local union executives militantly oppose. 

Like a charter school, leaders at Hawthorne Elementary enjoy many freedom-to-teach policies that are denied to teachers at traditional public schools.  Educators at Hawthorne Elementary are allowed to:

●  Design their own academic program; 

●  Apply their own student assessments and develop student learning goals; 

●  Choose their own curriculum; 

●  Shield younger teachers from union seniority rules and forced layoffs; 

●  Protect good teachers from union hiring and assignment rules that are based on seniority rather than merit;

 ●  Exercise greater control over its own budget.

Five other Seattle schools operate with many of the benefits of charter schools under theCreative Approach Program.  These are Cleveland High, Nova High School, Queen Anne Elementary, Thornton Creek Elementary and Seattle World School.

With their independence from central district and union work rules, educators at these schools are able to serve students through longer school days, block scheduling, flexible class sizes, buying their own classroom supplies, raising money from private partnerships, and providing more professional training for teachers.

A seventh school, Rainier Beach High, is allowed, like a charter school, to hire its own teachers under a special waiver from the union’s seniority-based forced placement rule, as I wrote in September here.

The same week a national union leader praised a Seattle elementary school for its charter-like independence, lawyers hired by the state union are seeking to deny Washington’s children access to charter schools.  At a hearing in King County Superior Court tomorrow, attorneys from the Washington Education Association union will argue that Judge Jean Rietschel should re-impose the state ban on charter schools.

Voters lifted the ban last year with passage of Initiative 1240, authorizing a total of 40 charters schools to open in the state over five years.  Washington currently has 2,300 public schools.

It strikes many people as mean-spirited for union lawyers to try to prevent children from attending a charter school, especially in the same week the union’s national president praises a public school that operates much like a charter.

Charter schools are popular with parents and many teachers.  Thirty-one community-based groups have already expressed interest in opening one of the eight charters schools allowed next year.  If the WEA’s union lawyers fail in their lawsuit, these new schools will welcome children next fall.  In the meantime, many Seattle children, like those at Hawthorne Elementary, are already benefiting from the lessons gained from the operation of successful charter public schools.

This report is part of Washington Policy Center's Initiative 1240 Follow-up Project