Updates From Publicola

Over at Publicola, they report that WEA president, Mary Lindquist, wrote an open letter based on what Nick Hanauer had to say about public education in the state of Washington.

You can read the whole thing there but she says several things I find I can agree with her on:

And yet, in a single email, he has managed to align himself with a politician who is antithetical to all of those progressive values.


First, it must be clearly understood that it is the voters of Washington – not the WEA – that have rejected charter schools on three separate occasions in recent years. 


Voters know that for charter schools to be imposed, advocates like Hanauer would need to poach funding from local neighborhood schools and districts.


In the 2010 legislative session, WEA pushed the adoption of SB 6696. Now we are engaged in a collaborative process with districts across the state to pilot new evaluation systems. We see signs this system will make a real difference for students. We look forward to a fair and lasting process that improves instruction and enhances student learning.


We continue to ask our teachers and school employees to work longer hours, for less pay and lower benefits, in the 3rd most crowded classrooms in the nation.


In another story, looks like Stand for Children's Executive Director, Shannon Campion, is moving on.  Publicola's take?

And speaking of the civil war that’s brewing in the Democratic Party over ed reform: Campion’s announcement follows Lisa Macfarlane’s announcement late last year that she’s leaving her job as executive director of the League of Education Voters—a compatriot of Stand for Children—and starting  the Washington chapter of a similar education reform group, Democrats for Education Reform, which finds itself in the center of a civil war trying to nudge Democrats out of the union camp.

Checking over at Stand's website, I don't see a notice about Ms. Campion's exit.  But they do talk about the various education bills, calling both the teacher evaluation bill and charter bill, "our bills."

Comments

Anonymous said…
Moving right on up the ladder of corporate reform.

Children first? I don't think so.

Dora
Anonymous said…
How can our progressive voices be heard? Where's our microphone?
n...
Don't sit quietly said…
n....,

There will be a protest infront of the Gates Foundation on March 1st. Show up.
Anonymous said…
Schedule time with your legislator in Olympia or staff here in Seattle. THIS WEEK. Tell them the Stand for Children and LEV and Gates push for charters isn't cutting it with you and that you don't want to see it coming back up late in the session.

Tell them you are sick of hearing that all the woes of public ed rest on the heads of our teachers.

My phone calls got me nothing but positive and thankful responses. The Democrats know they're getting played and they don't appreciate it. I don't think they appreciated Hanauer's diatribe either. Not from what I've heard.

EdVoter
Anonymous said…
Quietly, thanks. Wouldn't it be great to get a million or more educators into the streets? I'm thinking King's march on Washington. Things are getting desperate. And not just in education.

http://www.occupyed.org/organizations

Will the people on this blog join us? We need more than teachers.

n...
Christina said…
What does "progressive" really mean in Seattle? Because Matt Griffin and Nick Hanauer both claim to be progressive.

What does "progressive" mean in the U.S.? Because Senator Al Franken was for SOPA and will probably be for every internet-limiting bill Lamar Smith brings.

I genuinely don't know because I can't vote here but I've been here long enough to know that people just love to misuse and abuse political labels.

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