On the Upside of McCleary....

The "Education Funding Task Force" set up by the legislature to plan for a plan for fully funding schools starts its work tomorrow.  But would I want to go to this meeting?  Nah.

    Agenda
  1. Introductions.
  2. Overview of requirements of E2SSB 6195.
  3. Administration of the Education Funding Task Force (EFTF).
  4. Washington State Institute for Public Policy update on Request For Proposal for an independent consultant.
  5. Briefing by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction: Current school district reporting and accounting procedures.
  6. Discussion of briefings requested by the EFTF members.
  7. Scheduling future meetings. 
I'm pretty sure most people know each other by now.  They want a consultant; no surprise there.  State Superintendent?  Dorn has been more than clear on his position but as long as he has them all in one room, why not say it again?

“I urge the Supreme Court to take a hard line. The sanctions the Court has in place now obviously haven’t gotten the Legislature’s attention,” Dorn said in a March 29 statement. “I’d like the Court to establish a firm date by which full funding must be complete. Until that time, our students will stay on hold. And that is never acceptable.”
I had to seek it out but here are the members of the committee:

·         Senator Andy Billig
·         Senator John Braun
·         Representative Kristine Lytton
·         Representative Chad Magendanz
·         Senator Ann Rivers
·         Senator Christine Rolfes
·         Representative Norma Smith
·         Representative Pat Sullivan
·         Matt Steuerwalt, Executive Dir. of Policy - Office of the Governor

Some ed reformers and, as well, I personally think anyone who served on the Governor's initial committee shouldn't be on this one as well.   I think fresh thinking for this work would have been better. 

The Everett Herald covers this story.  
Justices will soon consider whether to lift the contempt order in response to the commitment of legislators, through the task force, to act next year to ensure the McCleary deadlines are met.
Those who sued the state think lawmakers haven’t done enough to get rid of the contempt and want tougher sanctions imposed. They argued in court papers last year that justices could axe tax breaks to generate money or invalidate school funding statutes which would prevent schools from opening.

 Edmonds Superintendent Nick Brossoit said no one wants schools closed, but without the threat of such a dire consequence lawmakers may never act. 

“They don’t have the political will to address it,” he said. “It is going to take something dramatic to force some action.”
The leader of the Washington State School Directors Association said in spite of the consternation many trustees feel toward the Legislature, shuttering schools is too draconian.

“I know we’re all very skeptical,” said Alan Burke, executive director of the organization. “There is a process. We may not like it completely but I think we have to have the 2016 and 2017 schools years start on time.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Who Is A. J. Crabill (and why should you care)?

Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Read more

Why the Majority of the Board Needs to be Filled with New Faces

This may only be a partial list of reasons; please, add anything else in the comments. The deadline to file to run for the Board is May 19th. Entire Board Majority NOT vetting the Superintendent in any way, shape or form. Even the Seattle Times thought that was wrong.  It was just absolute hubris and it was wrong. For the second time in just over a year , board members voted to negotiate a superintendent contract during a special meeting with no opportunity for public comment. This time, they showed an even deeper disregard for their responsibilities as public servants: Aborting a national search for a new superintendent and denying Interim Superintendent Brent Jones a chance to show students, parents and taxpayers that, indeed, he is the best person for the job. Government bodies can’t fast-forward through transparent processes just because they think they know the right answer. One other odd thing about the hiring of Brent Jones - most permanent SPS superintendent contracts ar
Read more