Education: Charters helping underserved students

As a math teacher at Destiny Middle School in Tacoma, I’m counting on our legislators to fix the state’s voter-approved charter school law. My students, and hundreds of others already benefiting from charter schools, deserve to continue learning in high-quality environments without interference. And thousands more deserve this opportunity down the line.

At Destiny, 80 percent of our students started this year below grade level in math and reading; many were multiple grades behind. In three months, more than a third of Destiny students caught up in math, and more than a third grew one to two grade levels in reading.

It’s clear that what we’re doing in our classrooms is working for our state’s academically underserved students, and closing our schools would mean shutting doors on children who are too often left behind in our system.

Families need these excellent options. We’re depending on legislators for a solution that allows my colleagues and me to continue serving our students, allows additional authorized schools to open, and gives every parent in Washington access to innovative schools as part of a vital and effective public system.

Students need these schools, parents want them and voters approved them.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Education: Charters helping underserved students."