By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once observed that ending a bad relationship “is like knocking over a Coke machine. You can’t do it in one push. You’ve got to rock it back and forth a few times, and then it goes over.”

That type of persistence is being displayed by charter school advocates in Washington state who want to give families a choice of where their children attend school. Washington is one of only nine states that doesn’t yet allow charter schools to compete with traditional, government-run public schools.

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“A coalition of education advocacy groups on Tuesday started the process of once again asking voters to allow charter schools in Washington state,” the Seattle Times reports.

In order for the group to put a pro-charter initiative on the November ballot, it needs to collect 250,000 signatures by July 6, the Times reports.

If the group succeeds, it will be the fourth time voters have been asked to approve the alternative public schools that are typically free of micromanagement by teacher unions.  Voters last weighed in on charter schools back in 2004, and polls suggest they might finally be ready to give their blessing.

The Times reports the initiative would only allow 40 charter schools to be “established and approved by the state over a five-year period. Priority would be given to charters that serve at-risk students or students from low-performing public schools.”

Charter proponents are only asking voters to dip their big toe in the “charter school” pool to test the water. They rightly suspect that once Washington families experience the freedom and innovation of charter schools, they’ll demand more of them.

The state’s teacher unions understand that, too. That’s why the Washington Education Association wasted no time in blasting the proposal as some dangerous, wild-eyed scheme to overthrow the state’s K-12 system. In other words, union teachers don’t want competition for students or the state dollars that follow them.

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Regardless of how this latest proposal turns out, charter school advocates will succeed in knocking over the figurative Coke machine one of these days. And when it finally tips, Washington families will have reason to celebrate.