On the Costs of the Legislature Continuing to Drag Its Collective Feet on McCleary

From the Arizona Republic (another state that underfunds public education):

Why didn't GE choose Arizona as its new HQ? 

General Electric announced this week that it is moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to Boston.

“We want to be at the center of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations,” the company said, in a prepared statement. “Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research & development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically-fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world. We are excited to bring our headquarters to this dynamic and creative city.”

In Arizona, education is treated an expense. In Massachusetts, it’s an investment.
I wish I could remind Boeing, Microsoft, etc. of this when they want their huge taxbreaks and whine about not enough educated/high tech workers.  How about giving back one-third? One-half? of those tax breaks to support public education.

I was watching Seattle Channel's City Inside/Out that featured Seattle legislators speaking about the upcoming legislative session.  (I'll probably do a separate thread as Pettigrew, Carlyle, Pedersen and Tarleton all had interesting things to say.  Also, I was part of a panel yesterday along with former legislator, Marcie Maxwell, and SCPTA president, Cassandra Johnston, speaking on the SPS levies. That will air starting tonight at 7 pm on channel 21.)

Senator Jamie Pedersen, himself a lawyer, spoke about all the things the Court could do and then said this about the Court:

"Their patience is not eternal."

As I told the Senate K-12 ed committee on Monday, when I was testifying against both the charter bills, I think the patience of parents and community is wearing thin.  Honestly, not one Senator batted an eye.  

What's that old ELO song?
Bad dreamer, what's your name?
Looks like we're ridin' on the same train
Looks as through there'll be more pain
There's gonna be a Showdown
 I think so.

Comments

Catherine said…
RE the court's patience... I think the court needs to come up with a punishment fits the crime kind of penalty. We have a substitute teacher crisis in Washington. In that light, think every legislator needs to do a week of being a sub in over the max enrollment classrooms. The classroom teacher should leave the legislator a bill for all the non-state funded supplies that would be used that day and the lesson plan. And a different room in a different school, preferably in a different district every day.

While this would be disruptive to classes in the short run - if we get full funding faster as a result - I think the overall disruption would be smaller than the operational chaos in which our system currently manages to educate many of our kids.

1/15/16, 2:57 PM
Patrick said…
Justice for the legislators, but terribly unfair to the kids for even a short-term sub.
1/15/16, 4:20 PM
n said…
Totally agree, Catherine. Taking the long view, it would probably benefit all kids and change education for the better.
1/16/16, 12:17 AM
Catherine said…
Patrick - I get it. I think over the long term, what we're continuing to allow is a greater unfairness to our kids. Short term pain, long term gain, but I accept others' balance points are different.

And just to prevent this as a publicity stunt... no photos, no ability to mention which schools they were in, no campaigning or fundraising during those days. Because legally I believe we have to pay them, they would get paid the lowest rate any sub can be paid - unless the legislator is currently a state certified teacher or college professor in which case they'd get that sub scale.
1/16/16, 10:45 AM
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