Washington voters have rejected charter schools three times and for good reason.

There is no reason to think charter schools will be more effective in high poverty areas. Many public schools see significant improvement each year a child is in school. Unfortunately, students can start school up to five years behind (Jeanne Chall, The Academic Achievement Challenge; Ruby Payne, A Framework for Understanding Poverty) and suffer summer reading loss that can add up to an additional one-year gap by sixth grade. It would be far better to invest in preschool education and summer reading programs.

Charter schools are part of the corporate legacy of "reform" that is trumpeted by corporate-owned media. This movement has brought excessive testing, chiefly benefiting companies that develop tests.

It has brought narrowed curriculum that discourages innovation and creativity, and has benefited consultants and publishers that tap into the desperation of districts to raise test scores at any cost. There are those who would dearly love to profit from privatizing public schools in order to gather even larger profits. But it is time to stop choosing profit for the few over the good of our children. It is time to listen to the experts in our classrooms, and reinvest in public schools.

-- Janet Bell, Kennewick