Tuesday Open Thread

Washington's Paramount Duty has a new website and is still working hard to see McCleary fully enacted. Here's how their home page reads:

The shameful, endless STATUS QUO
Parents and their children live and breathe it every day: overcrowded classrooms ... lack of basic textbooks and supplies ... disappearing arts and sports programs ... unsafe buildings ... overwhelmed teachers ...

Pretty much says it all.

Now for something pretty funny - former Governor Christine Gregoire is now the CEO of a group - Challenge Seattle - to work on "transportation and education issues."  From Geek Wire:

 The new organization officially came out of stealth mode earlier this month, announcing plans to solve the region’s pressing transportation and education problems with the help of government, the University of Washington, and 17 leaders from some of the largest and most successful local companies.

I'll be honest; when I see more business types than any other in a group, I always have my doubts. 

Here's the funny part (on education):

For example, we’ll go into schools that are quite challenged with higher drop-out rates and sometimes we’ll have videos, or sometimes we’ll have CEOs in person. Imagine Boeing CEO Ray Conner going into a school and telling the students how the company wants to hire them. He can tell them how he started as a mechanic at Boeing, how the company put him through school, and how he became CEO. He can show them that they can do the same, but first they need to stay in school, get decent grades, keep their noses clean and be a good citizen.

Anyone with a middle or high school kid? Imagine that - "videos" or the CEO of Boeing standing before them, telling them to "keep their noses clean." Not sure that is really the motivation that moves kids in any decade.

Hey, look at that - private schools are very white.  But the charts in this article from the Washington Post are interesting.  I actually thought Washington State would be worse.  The author of this study does put forth a serious premise based on more states giving vouchers for parents to send their children to private schools:

Because of this historical pattern, private schools that take public money (via vouchers and voucher-like programs) should not be able to select the students they admit. Instead, those schools should have to admit anyone who applies, just like public schools do, said Steve Suitts, who wrote the study as a senior fellow at the Southern Education Foundation.

“The public-school system is built on the bedrock notion that we want each child to have a chance for a good education,” said Suitts, now an adjunct professor at Emory University. “And if private schools do not wish to advance that national purpose, then they ought not receive public funding.”

Speaking of diversity in schools, NYC is piloting a program to create more diversity in its schools.  From WNYC:

Seven New York City elementary schools will be able to consider factors like income and English language skills in an effort to increase student diversity at their schools, starting this application season for next school year.

Principals of the schools asked for the changes because they were concerned about the increasing lack of socio-economic and racial diversity among their student bodies.

What's on your mind?