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.)
Comments
I am convinced that a more determined action (boycott new unfunded legislative "accountability" initiatives? Throw the tea into the harbor? General strike?) is required.
Spilled Milk
Spilled, no one hates Boeing. To say that giving tax breaks to Boeing and wishing some of that went to education is not hate. It's logic.
We need to get real and do something now in Seattle to avoid a disaster. No more waiting for Olympia.
Nyland's Turn
Let me walk you through it, Boeing pays it's local employees who spend their money here in WA including taxes. King county's Boeing employed residents pay property taxes used for every single public service we have in King county. Seattle's Boeing employed property owners pay property taxes which Fund SPS directly.
Working at a tax payer funded institution is not really working now is it. Boeing is responsible for huge part of this nation's GDP.
We all should feel extremely fortunate to have Boeing here no matter what.
Spilled Milk
I agree. I suspect there will be intense pressure before the pink slips get mailed. If only we had the money that Washington Charters used to pressure the legislature during the last legislative session....
Nyland's turn
The School Board, on the other hand, are the lawmakers, with the mandate from voters. They are the ones who must direct Nyland to what they consider right. If schools can't function safely in the interest of children at the level of funding SPS gets, then it's the School Board who need step up and say they'll take it up with the State Board of Education that the District can't stay open for 180 days. Then the Board has to decide if they direct Nyland to comply or whether they will suffer the consequences of their actions. Seems like MLK Day is a good day to reflect on that.
The next piece that is coming down the pike for the School Board is to decide whether we become a Sanctuary District for undocumented students, like Portland already has. Again, the administrators in the district are only as strong as the School Board that supports and directs them. The Board is going to have to decide whether they are willing to go to jail to protect students.
Taking some tough decisions like this might be exactly what SPS needs. The urgency might even bring this Board together!
Get Real
Democrats have been running the show for 30 years, blame them not Boeing. My god do you realize how many UW and WSU grads Boeing hires and how much tuition Boeing employees pay for their children to attend UW and WSU.
People are barking up the wrong tree. Leave Boeing out of this.
Spilled Milk
I really doubt that voters were choosing that when they voted last year.
I doubt there is one single board member willing to spend an hour in jail for any issue.
Getting real
It's like a communist country. Boeing is a state enterprise with a guaranteed market; no matter what is wrong with the product they just get more money to fix it.
Yet the workers are threatened with losing their livelihood and the city, county, and state with all the income that is spent(as spilled animal secretion points out).
They get paid like commies and are as ruthless a capitalist as their shareholders demand.
So Sad!
My, my we have a lot of people defending Boeing. All that is being said is if all these companies could give back just a bit of their tax breaks (each of them), there would be money for schools. I have nothing against Boeing workers but this is serious stuff. We need to fully fund education and it should come out of shareholders' pockets and not health/human services/public safety.
UW janitor
"I can’t support a levy cliff bill. Not because I hate schools, teachers, administrators, paras, or children. Rather, it is the only forcing function that we have to keep everyone at the table to solve the McCleary issue once and for all. If we solve the levy cliff piece, I feel certain that there will be many who would think that we have done our work and walk away. I can’t speak for the Democrat solution, but I know the Republican solution removes the need for the levy cliff bill. It seems that we both want the same thing but that we have differing strategy that will get us there."
Warmly - Ann
-LS
Delaying the levy cliff in no way solves McCleary.
Stop using
It seems to me that the Republicans have put more energy into denying the Court's authority and deferring any action to meet their constitutional duty. But if you're aware of a Republican plan to fully fund education, please share it.
"Hi Ann-- What exactly is the Republican Solution being put forth? My understanding is that there has not been a solution put forward by the Republicans. Can you please clarify. In the meantime, kids will suffer next year due to the Levy cliff crisis."
-LS
"We are briefing the bill this week and will release it to the public early next week. "
-LS
Shall I look into my crystal ball? Cuts to health and human services, that will be their answer.
Of course, no such federal rules will happen under Trump. Nor under pay-to-play "new Democrats" for that matter. Nor as long as most of the Congress is leased by big money special interests. You suppose our "progressive" (in a big pharma sort of way) senators would support such rules? Ya, right, never mind.
You may have reasonable concerns about the ability of the Legislature to finish the job. But to not give credit where credit is due is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Albert S.
Albert S.
We need a CEO to step in and run this district no more of these blowhard public servants, they just don't cut it. I think SPS has been a 12 year disaster in the making, it's one cockamamie program after another with no measurable positive results from any of them.
So Burke, when are the kids getting back to learning?
Seriously flawed
I think the district hurts itself by not being crystal clear about where every dollar goes and why.
I hope the board cuts 40% of the staff down at JSCEE and suspends all none budgetary expenditures for the rest of the fiscal year.
MOR
You somehow point out...what?
Albert S.
If you don't get what I'm saying, I'm not repeating it.
Also, as was pointed out at the WPD Facebook page, how come the GOP can't sign onto the levy cliff extension WITH the proviso that it doesn't get enacted if the McCleary work gets done in a timely fashion?
And let me ask you this? Who held the majorities in both the Senate and the House (and the Governor's office) in 2008 and 2009 when these cuts were made? Democrats. That is a "simple fact."
I love how you voice irritation when other don't get the facts you want to convey while you convenient ignore other facts.
Why should the Republicans sign on to the levy cliff bills? Didn't they extend the levy cliff last session? Did the districts not know following the 2016 session that this would be coming? Oh, many of them (including SPS) had collectively bargained raises for teachers and now need the legislature to bail them out. Why don't those districts rescind those raises to solve their budget woes?
Albert S.
You don't get to crow about what you did if all you did was backfill. Sure the Republicans got it done but the recession was on the Republicans in Congress and Bush. Obama had to come in and clean it up.
I'm not ignoring anything but I like a full picture.
No, the Republicans did NOT extend the levy cliff last session. If they did, I sure missed it.
Yes, the districts knew this was coming but between the Supreme Court ruling (and fining and scolding) and the length of time McCleary was taking, well, you can't blame them for believing McCleary would get done. Shame on them for believing in their Legislature.
Rescind the raises? That would just land them in court. I will conceded our district had no business giving COLAs to everyone at JSCEE including the superintendent (but I have already said that as well unless you missed that, too.)
Actually, no. I did not infer that Republicans had done nothing. I never said or wrote that they had done nothing. I wrote that they were more energetic about "denying the Court's authority and deferring any action to meet their constitutional duty." I found the images of sand and their talk about the Court and the Court's authority much more vigorous than their efforts to meet their constitutional duty. Towards that end they have only gathered the low hanging fruit and only done so reluctantly, like a child dragged to a neighbor's home to apologize for breaking a window and to pay for it from their allowance. That child's boasts about the funding they have provided for windows would not impress me. Are you counting the replacement of cuts in that $4.6 billion?
I also wrote this: "if you're aware of a Republican plan to fully fund education, please share it."
Are you aware of any such plan? I have seen plans from the Governor and from the Democrats in the legislature, but I have not seen the plan from the Republicans. They have not put any energy at all into a plan to fulfill the state's constitutional duty. Please remind me of their efforts to FULFILL their constitutional duty, not to make incremental progress or comply with the easy and obvious bits, but the hard part: finishing the job.
Honestly, I would love to hear about it. Should I assume that the Lügenpresse has suppressed the story of the Republican plan to fully fund public education in Washington State?