Education - The Key Issue in the Governor's Race
Went to the Alliance for Education breakfast today. It was a packed house despite the fact that there was another breakfast fund-raiser going on for King County Dems and the Mayor was off making a policing announcement.
Yay to the Ingraham band who showed up (and, poor things, had to stay until the end to play us out). Yay to Maple Elementary's dragon dancers and spoken word performers (but next time, give the kid doing rap the microphone).
Impressions:
- kind of subdued, almost like people are weary of talking about education
- nice round of applause for Susan Enfield but nothing out of the ordinary despite her departure
- Dr. Enfield called the Alliance "Seattle's local education fund".
- Sara Morris of the Alliance said the Alliance was both "a critic and a friend to the district" and "the independent guardian of funds." She also spoke of Seattle someday becoming the "envy of the nation." I wonder how we get there if we make all the same mistakes other districts that already have ed reform have made.
- Pat Stanford, the widow of the late superintendent, John Stanford, spoke and read from his book. In it, he said that he worried that the U.S. would lose its way as other civilizations have because we have failed to educate all children.
There was a (short) interview segment with the candidates for governor - Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee.
McKenna said the first thing he would do is create a budget with education at the top of it. He said fully funding wouldn't come overnight but over time. He said he would sign measures that supported ed reform and referenced Washington State being at the bottom of RTTT. When asked what innovation looked like, he said "no shortcuts, no excuses" and that "poverty is not a learning disability."
Inslee was equally animated on the subject and said teacher quality is important and teachers who do better should be paid more. He also is going to roll out his education plan next week that includes some kind of grant program for innovative schools. He said the most obvious investment that can be made in education is early childhood education and smaller class sizes for K-3. He referenced a number of districts/schools as examples of innovation (but none in Seattle). He said that innovation should not be the exception but the rule.
McKenna's website has a very wide-ranging plan and I give him credit for getting out front on this issue early. That said, I'm not for charters, governors who appoint school boards, or TFA. But clearly, he has given it much thought.
Inslee, not so much so far, and I'm surprised. But listening to him hedge on KUOW last week on charter schools and his talk this morning about teacher assessment leads me to think I might be disappointed with what he rolls out next week.
Yay to the Ingraham band who showed up (and, poor things, had to stay until the end to play us out). Yay to Maple Elementary's dragon dancers and spoken word performers (but next time, give the kid doing rap the microphone).
Impressions:
- kind of subdued, almost like people are weary of talking about education
- nice round of applause for Susan Enfield but nothing out of the ordinary despite her departure
- Dr. Enfield called the Alliance "Seattle's local education fund".
- Sara Morris of the Alliance said the Alliance was both "a critic and a friend to the district" and "the independent guardian of funds." She also spoke of Seattle someday becoming the "envy of the nation." I wonder how we get there if we make all the same mistakes other districts that already have ed reform have made.
- Pat Stanford, the widow of the late superintendent, John Stanford, spoke and read from his book. In it, he said that he worried that the U.S. would lose its way as other civilizations have because we have failed to educate all children.
There was a (short) interview segment with the candidates for governor - Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee.
McKenna said the first thing he would do is create a budget with education at the top of it. He said fully funding wouldn't come overnight but over time. He said he would sign measures that supported ed reform and referenced Washington State being at the bottom of RTTT. When asked what innovation looked like, he said "no shortcuts, no excuses" and that "poverty is not a learning disability."
Inslee was equally animated on the subject and said teacher quality is important and teachers who do better should be paid more. He also is going to roll out his education plan next week that includes some kind of grant program for innovative schools. He said the most obvious investment that can be made in education is early childhood education and smaller class sizes for K-3. He referenced a number of districts/schools as examples of innovation (but none in Seattle). He said that innovation should not be the exception but the rule.
McKenna's website has a very wide-ranging plan and I give him credit for getting out front on this issue early. That said, I'm not for charters, governors who appoint school boards, or TFA. But clearly, he has given it much thought.
Inslee, not so much so far, and I'm surprised. But listening to him hedge on KUOW last week on charter schools and his talk this morning about teacher assessment leads me to think I might be disappointed with what he rolls out next week.
Comments
I think that many readers of this blog will be surprised to learn that this year the 800 or so attendees were not injected with a electronic probe that could be used to send us each an immediate feed of the positions taken on education-related matters that our lords and masters, Bill Gates and Eli Broad, so we could think monolithicly and unquestioningly do their bidding, so they can accomplish the world domination so regularly predicted in the comments here. I guess we'll have to continue to muddle along, making up our own minds on various issues.
They didn't need to inject the probe. The nanomolecular capability was inserted via the eggs you digested. Gates developed the capability while working with Monsanto.
LOL
SavvyVoter
Some good words from Adrienne Rich,
who died yesterday.
She was born priviliged but saw through the intentions of groups like the Alliance, and spent the rest of her life advocating for the voiceless with her poetry and prose.
Rosie Reader, it might seem like a joke from whatever office you speak from (it's clearly not a classroom)--but for those of us in the trenches, doing the actual work (with more than good outcomes)--your tone sounds pretty clueless.
I am very thankful for the people who are keeping their eyes and ears on the powerbrokers. There is nothing paranoid about waking up.
I'll be laughing with you when these people and groups start doing something that actually helps students and schools.
--enough already
What the h*** does THAT mean?
I thought the Alliance was a just a manager of PTSA money and a fundraiser for school needs.
Does Ms. Morris believe the Alliance is some sort of policy maker, doling out funds to projects it wants to see enacted? Apparently so: Lofty words for a what should be merely money management and fundraising.
Where does the Alliance get off being a "critic" of the district?
Of course there are varying degrees across the political spectrum (look at my lukewarm feelings towards Inslee). There are also people who walk in lock-step.
I appreciate everyone who comes here, looking for information, discourse and lively conversation.
But enough already, from what I am hearing, it's a very tired group of teachers out there. Between the budget cuts and politicians acting like hammer and every teacher they see is a nail, it's not getting better.
But Enough, your words do strike me because that quote is right. I may end up writing on that topic because there is a fair amount of shrugging, looking away and yes, silence in this district.
It's not nice, and it's not productive. What, we're all frothing lunatics with pitchforks and you are the sensible guardian of rational thinking, thoughtful discourse, and beard-stroking indicative of a superior mind?
Methinks not, and by actions around the country, theythinks not, too: Many people are becoming aware of some of the nastier aspects of the privatization movement, and are pushing back.
Yay!
Sorry, Rosie!
What the h*** does THAT mean?
I thought the Alliance was a just a manager of PTSA money and a fundraiser for school needs.
Does Ms. Morris believe the Alliance is some sort of policy maker, doling out funds to projects it wants to see enacted? Apparently so: Lofty words for a what should be merely money management and fundraising.
Where does the Alliance get off being a "critic" of the district?
Your attempt to explain my response in a not so subtle way as the result of me being a tired, angry teacher is not only unfair and condescending but (I'm happy to report) is simply wrong.
I was responding to a remark that was made by Rosie Reader that I still believe warranted an honest response.
Before you use Adrienne Rich's quote, please reread it. Your attempt to silence me kind of misses the point not only of her quote, but her life's work.
I would caution a careful reading of Adrienne Rich's work before using her words in isolation.
--enough already
I believe public schools should be public; you believe there is some wiggle room. Perhaps you're right.
Where I get confused is where I see (not necessarily with you, personally) just "strange arithmetic" that, I think, results in a lower quality education, and people agreeing that that is a good thing.
It does drive me nuts, and I admit I stereotupe and generalize and spout about it....It's just galling and I'm frustrated.
Ah well. Maybe teaching to the meager tests IS a good thing, we shall see. Maybe making teachers work 12/7 for less pay, and shuffling them out after a couple of years will result in...higher test scores. Who knows. If I knew the answer to these questions I'd be a rich person, wot?
Some of my best friends are teachers, too.
--enough already
Emile
It doesn't matter if the individual Republican candidate appears to be a decent guy; he represents a constituency that has been hijacked by rigid Libertarian ideologues and Tea Party cultists, and he will be unable to compromise even when he wants to. His hands will be tied as Boehner's have been tied on the national level.
Republicans have simply become incapable of any kind of good faith negotiations with the other party. They have an agenda, and they'll game the system any way they can to implement it. This absurd hijacking the budget in the last month or so shows them in their true colors.
So as disappointing as Inslee has been so far, at least he's potentially educable and potentially more responsive to pressure that comes from sources other than business interests. While he might be listening to the corporate wing of the Democratic party now, we must find ways to make him hear from the kitchen table wing. In a way I'm relieved his ideas don't seem to have gelled yet.
But the fact is that corporate reform ideas about education are the coin of the realm for both both Republicans and Dems until the rest of us find a way of reframing in a more constructive way what we want the word "reform" to mean. Until we we do that more effectively, corporate reform ideas win by default in both parties.
We've been good at fighting back on single issues like charters, but we're not so good at fighting for an alternative, comprehensive vision of reform because we don't really have one, at least not one around which there is enough consensus to organize.
I have voted Democrat my whole life, but I will not be voting for Inslee as he is showing himself to lack the spine to stand up to the illogical and damaging ed reform demands to tie teacher pay and evaluations to student test scores. Neither will I vote for McKenna. I know this sounds foolish, but I am tired of these guys expecting to get our votes just because they are the lesser of two evils. Enough is enough, and I have to stand for something.
The teacher-bashing has to stop, or our votes will stop.
I will be sending a letter to Inslee today letting him know I will not be voting for a Democrat for governor for the first time in my adult life. He has shown he lacks the intellectual gravitas to deserve that leadership position.
way beyond enough already
My way is that I will give Inslee my vote but no money and no support.
So in that way you remain a Dem but you make Inslee work for that win.