Why Olympia's a One-Party Town

This op-ed was an interesting take on education in Washington state by Lynne Varner of the Times.

Her premise? There are fewer and fewer Republicans on the Eastside because Eastsiders care about education and don't like what state Republicans have to say. From her piece:

"Esser's predecessor, Chris Vance, advises Republicans to fall in love with public education. Drop divisive buzzwords like "government schools" and start talking about teachers' pay, accountability and the value of standardized testing.

"The mistake the GOP has made is that when you attack the teachers union, it comes across as attacking teachers and there is no one more popular than a teacher," Vance says."

I can't quite agree with the last statement because there's this strange thing of "love the teacher, hate the union". I have seen the teachers' union blamed for everything you can think of (the current one was a post at another blog about the reason for the lack of unity over Denny/Sealth is that they would need fewer teachers and they don't want teachers to lose their jobs. Naturally, this person is uninformed that they would still continue to operate as two separate schools with full staffs so no, there would not be fewer teachers.) I think the teachers' union only wishes it were as powerful as some think they are.

Comments

Anonymous said…
That is interesting. I voted for Dino Rossi last time around but I had planned on questioning his public education funding plans if he takes office and the issue has become so important to me that I'll most likely not support him if I don't like what he says. It's embarassing that the state ranks so low in so many categories and I'm shocked little has been done about it even with a democrat as governor over the last several years.
1/16/08, 11:21 AM
Anonymous said…
I suppose that the truth of the last 30 years -- incessant success by unaccountable corporate scumbags and their lackeys in the Republican Party trying to turn the USA into a 3rd world backwater with the filthy rich 1/2 a percent and the filthy poor everyone else

I suppose that those truths might be sinking in, so it is time for the liars of the right to change their lies!
1/18/08, 8:42 PM
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