Times Says Washington State Budget Agreement "in principle" Reached
From the Times.
Apparently this WILL prevent a shutdown of the state government on July 1. No details have yet been provided. The Governor's office has apparently been instrumental in getting both sides to the table.
"They're definitely forcing closure, which is a great thing, (Ross) Hunger said, referring to the Governor's office.
I would be willing to bet that the teachers don't get much of a raise that that I-1351 is mostly on-hold (something like I-728).
From the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk blog, Class Size: The Common Sense Bus doesn't stop on School Reform Blvd.
Apparently this WILL prevent a shutdown of the state government on July 1. No details have yet been provided. The Governor's office has apparently been instrumental in getting both sides to the table.
"They're definitely forcing closure, which is a great thing, (Ross) Hunger said, referring to the Governor's office.
I would be willing to bet that the teachers don't get much of a raise that that I-1351 is mostly on-hold (something like I-728).
From the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk blog, Class Size: The Common Sense Bus doesn't stop on School Reform Blvd.
Comments
Raises come from the locally bargained CBAs that the legislature now wants to limit.
Pros and cons to the latter. Would be good if the state takes on more of the funding like it should, but bad if it results in teachers living in more expensive areas making the same amount of money as a teacher living in Omak. I’ve heard plenty from teachers trying to live in Seattle/Bellevue so they are close to the community they work in, but having to move out to Lynnwood or Federal Way or beyond to find affordable housing.
Unfortunately, the GOP seems to have it in for the class-size initiative (most of the high-ranking GOPers have kids in private schools or in richer districts with smaller classes), even though it passed by a larger margin than the Gates-purchased charter school initiative, and Dems haven’t been highly supportive of it either, so having them suspend or gut another one does not surprise me.
CT
This from SPS budget document:
- Potential loss of 4% levy lid capacity = $19.0M in 2015 $
- Potential loss of ‘ghosting’ (I-728/I-732) in levy = $23.2M in 2015$
- Potential loss of both 4% and ghosting in levy = $39.7M in 2015$
- Potential increase in state funding (McCleary)??
-NNNCr
Asking
CT
-NNNCr
stu
To not reduce tuition because of the GET program is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a while. I'm an investment analyst so I've looked at this in great detail. The plan wasn't designed to provide "profits", but that is what it did from inception through 2009. April of 2009 was the last reasonable GET credit price. Anyone buying in after that has been funding a Ponzi scheme REGARDLESS of future tuition costs.
You could buy a year of college for $7600 at the end of 2008. In May of 2014, it was $17,200. That's a 126% increase! So, the current investors are funding college for the early investors. The state hopes the plan will be fully-funded by 2018. You can translate that as "we need to rip-off new investors to cover early investors since we really miscalculated".
MANY people have made a ton of money through their GET investments. Again, that wasn't what it was designed to do. That happened because college increased at such an obnoxious rate and the plan wasn't properly designed. So, the new purchasers are, and have been since mid-2009, paying inflated prices in order to cover the current college-goers.
So, some people bought in at insanely over-valued prices, but that's life. They haven't lost anything since their college costs are still covered for a year if they bought 100 units.
Reducing unit costs significantly is the only way investing in this plan would make any sense. Unless, of course, you think college will costs will increase 15%/year every year.
The taxpayers will be on the hook for this mess.
Also, this is all assuming you paid in cash up front. The financing costs make the program even more messed-up to the investor. The financing costs alone about match the average annual college tuition increase. Forget about the inflated unit purchase price or the differential between current purchase price and current payout value!!
Affordable tuition is one of the best long-term investments the state can make. We have a high tech sector here that imports most of our skilled workers from other places, we're not educating enough of them ourselves. In the long run, that's not a good plan.
Patrick, no offense, but you don't know what you're talking about.
IT worker
HP
H1B visas are used to lower wages. Non-US visa holders don't form unions.
We have plenty of tech workers here in the US and could easily train high school students to perform most of the tech jobs available. Don't believe companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook. These companies just want a more corporate favorable work force.
Companies use the visas to displace American workers and drive down salaries, both of which are expressly prohibited by law. Six of the top 10 companies receiving H-1B visas for workers in 2013 are based in India. The top two are Unisys and Tata Consultancy Services, the firms Southern California Edison hired to outsource the work of their 500 IT employees, 400 of whom are being laid off and 100 of whom are leaving voluntarily. About 70% of the work will shift overseas; about 20% of the jobs that remain in the U.S. are held by foreigners with H-1B visas
IT worker
I'm speaking of Washington's tech sector importing scientists and engineers from other states, not from other countries via the H1B program. It's not the jobs being done by high school grads or community college grads getting done by H1B holders, but the jobs that need a bachelor's or master's. There aren't enough grads in Washington to fill the needs of Washington tech companies, so we're getting them from elsewhere rather than expanding our state's scientific and technical education.
I have no problem with the legitimate use of visas or US citizens coming to WA state. Since I work in the field and might know a little bit about what's going on and I will disagree with your assessment. The most proficient leading edge tech workers are self taught. They might get a little basic education, but after that things move too fast for schools to keep up and we leave for greener pasture$. I can train the right interested tech savy high school kid to perform many of the tech jobs that companies are hiring H1B workers for and feel confident they will grow to assume greater responsibility and real world skills. These kids don't have $110K in student loans and never have to realize they wasted most of their time and money. You need to understand you don't need 6 years of collage to write code period. Many CS students need loads of hand holding and probably benefit from some parts of a CS program, but the naturals don't. If you ask people who have been in the field a while with CS degree they will tell you everything useful they know was learned on the job passed on to them from a season veteran. It's unfortunate many probably think FaceBook is a technology or Amazon's one click check out was a scientific break through and therefore these companies can break the rules and must hired workers from India with PHDs in javascript. What we need and are looking for are people with good math skills, some basic understanding of computers and a passion for technology. These type of people tend to come up with innovation and are not cookie cutter CS students.
As you wrote "There aren't enough grads in Washington to fill the needs of Washington tech companies, so we're getting them from elsewhere rather than expanding our state's scientific and technical education." Patrick I challenging you to prove it.
IT worker
Anyway, this is getting very far from the topics of the state budget.
Please amaze us with your OOD or FPGA skills. I'll wait.
Remember this was your tangent, so Patrick what are you really writing about?
IT worker
We try to push too many kids into college these days. It doesn't matter if it is teaching or cutting edge computer skills, we need to go back to giving our kids a well-rounded enriched learning experience in all areas: mathematics, writing, reading - all the basics and let kids find their bliss. And college degrees will be a choice by those who really want to pursue an interest academically and those who choose something else.
And the abuse of H1B is a different conversation altogether. Higher ed is an achievement that not everybody wants but feels compelled to get. It is as if universities have become profit-making corporations. They have the same mentality. I think Gaetano (right Melissa?) taught students who had a passion, didn't he? It is all out-of-whack to me. I think they should go back to being smaller and more selective and tailor themselves to the needs of particular groups of students who need and really desire that degree for a higher purpose. And this is a budget issue. It is one of refining your offerings to people who really want them and need them. Smaller, more efficient and cheaper.
Generally good news for schools.
-NNNCr
Perhaps the GET is a poorly designed financial product which should be wound down before it does damage to the state budget. Is it a pyramid scheme? If the early participants sucked out more value than the market was delivering on their investements, the later participants or the state will have to pay that bill, it is as simple as that.
Should the state be in the business of guaranteed college savings plans for private schools, I would say no. But of course the choice of school is unknown ahead. The state should guarantee a return of 8% when used at an in state school, and a return of 4%, if not used for whatever reason. Indexing the program to tuition is volatile and does not provide the financial security good savers are deserve.
-NNNCr
California (24.9),
Oregon (21.8),
Utah (21.6),
Washington (19.7), and
Indiana (18.6).
States with the lowest student-teacher ratios were:
Vermont (9.2),
Nebraska (9.8),
New Jersey (12.0),
New York (12.0), and
New Hampshire (12.1).
Class sizes are larger than these ratios.
http://www.nea.org/home/rankings-and-estimates-2013-2014.html
-- Dan Dempsey
Gmail Help Number UK