Options for families? “No,” according to the Seattle School Board, which voted on Jan. 3 to urge the city to thwart a charter school building project.

From the news item “School Board opposes zoning request” in the Seattle Times:

“School Board members said they are concerned the Green Dot school would draw students — and funding — away from other public schools, including Rainier Beach, Franklin and Cleveland high schools. Allowing charters to build large schools, board members wrote in the resolution, would be ‘highly detrimental’ to the three high schools’ ability to serve Seattle students.”

If a charter public school with significantly less resources, and low economies of scale can provide education services sufficient to draw families away from Seattle Public Schools, then Seattle Public Schools isn’t trying hard enough.

The job of elected school boards shouldn’t be to use government to limit options; it should be to work to improve their schools to meet the challenge of offering good services.

It is no coincidence that each member of the Seattle school board has been funded by monopoly-favoring unions.