This and That, February 26, 2024

The deadline for applicants to fill the two open Seattle School Board seats has come and gone (Sunday, Feb 25th. This week:

Week of February 26, 2024: Individual candidate webpages published with candidates’ photos and letters of interest, work experience/resume, and questionnaire responses as submitted through the application form. Candidates’ video statements will be added once finalized for all candidates. 

Week of February 26, 2024: Candidates record video statements with SPSTV for posting to candidate webpages. Candidates who have applied and/or submitted their contact information will be contacted to schedule.

As soon as those webpages go up, I'll post them here. I would appreciate any input from readers who personally know or know of these candidates.  

 

I also want to note a bill in the Washington State legislature that I previously missed and which I believe is still in play - from the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Walking start to Running Start’: Bill would allow students to enroll in college courses before 11th grade

High schoolers might have the opportunity to begin Running Start courses earlier than expected if a bill allowing rising juniors to enroll in college classes during the summer becomes law.

Before starting 11th grade, 10th-grade students could take up to 10 credits at a local community college over the summer through the Running Start program, under a bill proposed by Sen. Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee.

The state program lets high school students earn college credits, but is currently limited to juniors and seniors.

The bill would also require school districts to provide information about Running Start summer enrollment options to students and their families.

Students can take a full- or part-time course load, some graduating with an associate degree by the end of high school.

 

From Children and Screens, a tipsheet on digital addiction.

Many online platforms are expertly designed to encourage addictive use but when does heavy use become problematic and when does it become a digital addiction? What are the warning signs, and how can families head off addictive use and address the problem if their child’s use crosses this threshold?

Children and Screens convened a panel of clinical specialists in child and adolescent digital addiction, researchers, and parents of youth with lived experience of gaming addiction to provide a guide to assist families in preventing, recognizing, and coping with youth digital addiction.

 

Great report from the Network for Public Education that ranks states, Public Schooling in America.

Neighborhood public schools remain the first choice of the overwhelming majority of Ameri-
can families. Despite their popularity, schools, which are embedded in communities and gov-
erned by elected neighbors, have been the target of an unrelenting attack from the extreme
right. This has resulted in some state legislatures and governors defunding and castigating
public schools while funding alternative models of K-12 education.

 This 2024 report, Public Schooling in America: Measuring Each State’s Commitment to
Democratically Governed Schools, examines these trends, reporting on each state’s commit-
ment to supporting its public schools and the children who attend them.

Good news, Washington gets a B and comes in at number 14. Washington State does fairly well because in the category of vouchers and charter school expansion, the former doesn't exist and the latter has been stalled out for years. 

Who's at the bottom?

Florida stands out for its terrible policies across the board. In every category, it was at the bottom or near the bottom, achieving only 17 percent of possible points. Years of hostile policies have taken their toll, with only about 74 percent of K-12 students attending public schools. Arizona is only marginally better.

Why worry?

Make no mistake. All of the above are connected by design. The spread of the so-called “school choice movement” is linked with a well-orchestrated campaign to turn the public against its schools. During a talk at the ultra-right Hillsdale College, the home of the Barney Charter School Initiative, Christopher Rufo explained how to leverage the culture wars to achieve the destruction of public governance of
schools.

He told the audience, “To get to universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust.” He continued by advising the audience to create a narrative around public education that is “ruthless and brutal."

This emboldened school choice movement that emerged following COVID-19 has made it clear that the “choice” movement aims to destroy democratically governed district public schools. Using the term “government schools,” coined by economist Milton Friedman, they follow the roadmap Friedman drafted in the 1950s. The final destination, outlined in a 2002 conversation with Friedman, is a system of for-profit and nonprofit education delivery systems driven by the market and paid for by parents, not taxpayers. In short, the ultimate goal of libertarians and the radical right is the “back to the future” dream of American schooling before Horace Mann.