Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update from the News Tribune (by the way, want to read good reporting? read the News Tribune): That increase in the levy lid is set to expire in January 2018, causing school district officials to seek an extension . Some lawmakers argued that school district officials won’t need the increased levy authority if the Legislature meets its obligations to fully fund public schools before 2018. The compromise budget says the Legislature will revisit the issue next April, if lawmakers determine they aren’t on track to fully fund public schools by April 30.  “We have got to be committed to the solution,” said state Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, who called the plan a “well-worked compromise.” Other lawmakers said school districts need more certainty than the budget provides. State Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, said many school districts will have to plan for layoffs and budget cuts without the extension of the levy cliff. “This is a devastating blow to school di...

I have previously pointed out the obvious about Governor Jay Inslee and the situation he is in regarding the charter school bill on his desk.   1) He ran on the Washington State Democratic platform which is against charter schools.  2) He's running for reelection and he needs to consider money AND boots on the ground to support him if he wants another term.  While I don't think the Republican candidate can win, he should run hard (especially given the craziness around what the GOP is doing on the presidential candidate level.) 3) Throughout his tenure, he has said he's against charter schools.  He has never said anything publicly about that stance changing. 4) During the legislature session, he did go visit a charter and said he was glad to meet students who loved reading.  Some interpreted that as a soften of his stance. I'm not sure one visit to a charter school would change anyone's mind.    5) He went to law school and wa...

Diane Ravitch has this from Rep. Mike Sells, 38th Legislative District.  It is all the things that some of us knew were going on (and probably going on.)  The last paragraph - on the House debate and all those amendments? Watching the action, you could tell that at least some of it was prearranged because that's how smug and dismissive some of the Republicans were.  (emphasis mine) Just say no, Governor.

Update: Please call Governor Inslee and tell him he needs to veto this bill for two reasons.  The legislature did not get any real work done on McCleary and the bill will likely not pass muster with the courts (and does he want even more families to go thru what happened to charter families this year?) 360-902-4111 @GovInslee E-mail  end of update

Washington State Dems have one thing that we don't like to talk about - that's the state of public education.  It is a schism within the party that everyone knows about, snipes about but no one seems to want to find a way forward. While charters have seemingly dominated the conversation for months, McCleary full-funding for our schools has been assigned the "kick me" sign.  (The other big story? Pre-K.  We'll have to have a conversation about that.) On one side you have the big money people - League of Education Voters, Stand for Children, Washington State Charter Schools Association, DFER Washington, CRPE - all fixated on charter schools. And strangely silent on full funding for our schools.  What is means is that Governor Inslee may be in a very tight spot in a day or so.  He has consistently been against charter schools and yet, been quite coy lately on his stand.  It could come back to haunt him in this election year. On the other side, today I ...

The Republican House/Senate Majority Caucus had a press conference to discuss various subjects on the docket as the end of the legislative session draws near.  At about 2:30, Rep Chad Magendanz weighs in on charter legislation.

My Northwest is reporting that the Governor is saying this: Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday that he will not sign any bills coming his way if legislators in Olympia do not finish the budget on time.  "This morning I let leadership know that they should not expect me to sign bills until they reach a budget agreement," Inslee said.  "Doing a budget is their first job. They need to do their first job," he said. "Then, and only then, can we start to look at these bills that are not going to be signed unless we get a budget."

 Update: What's the torque that the Republicans are going to use to try to do this? The levy cliff that districts face. So let's threaten to throw 1M+ traditional school students over a levy cliff to save 1,000 former charter students. I urge you to write your legislator or Governor Insee (his Twitter handle is @GovInslee) Again, I know the Supreme Court is watching.  end of update There's a great commentary over at the Washington Policy Center over what is going on in the legislature.  I'm not the biggest fans of WPC; I don't have a problem with them taking a stand but sometimes their education voice is not factually correct and overwrought. But boy, do they get it right in their commentary on some in the legislature trying to weasel in a charter school bill that will likely be many things, among them: unconstitutional, not vetted properly by either legal experts and lacking any public discourse or input. Now I'm sure those legislators would ...

The Washington Policy Center had a whole article about how swell charter schools are doing, both in enrollment and outcomes. Over and over, charter supporters say there is "evidence" that students in former charter schools are doing better but they have given NO definitive, verifiable evidence. There are no baseline scores to say where the kids were before they came into the former charters and no explanation of what kinds of assessments were done (what? two months into school?) to show progress. What I DID find was the following about charter schools in Washington State.

Basically, the editorials seem to be asking "what are YOU doing to solve problems besides criticizing others?" (bold mine)

Feb. 5th was one of the key dates in the 60-day legislative session. It was the policy cut-off in the House of Origin. Here are the next key dates:

Not often, but sometimes, newspapers allow their political reporters some free reign and here's one of the best on the current legislative session from reporter Melissa Santos of the News Tribune in Tacoma.   Pretty funny.  (And I'm going to miss Kyle Stokes of KPLU who has the funniest tweets ever. That traitor is moving to Southern California.) Also from the Tribune comes the story that their superintendent, former CAO for SPS, Carla Santorno , has been nominated for a top award, Women in School Leadership, from the American Association of School Administrators.

From TRAP (Teacher Retention Advocate Parents) : Is the Washington State Legislature REALLY planning to ignore the McCleary Ruling for another session? Is the House and Senate - once again - refusing to uphold their paramount duty to fully funding public education? Here at TRAP Headquarters, the Legislature's continued defiance of the Constitution makes our blood boil. In fact, we think it's a crime.   Funding public education should be JOB ONE this legislative session.

The Washington state legislature is committed to taking bold action on funding public education... next year. State lawmakers’ proposal to fix school funding calls for more study I guess some things just don't change. It's always "next year" for these people. Don't they know that we were here last year? Do they think we can't figure out that this year is the "next year" in their promises last year? Once again, their plan for this year is to work on a plan for next year. You might wonder what happened to the plan they made last year to work on a plan for this year. Yeah, that didn't work out. It was a total failure, so their bright idea is to do it again without any changes.

I'll start with what I think is coming next.  A big fat fight in the legislature - one that will take time and energy away from the work of McCleary.  (Despite what Republicans think, a one-pager to the Supreme Court with some dates and thoughts on funding are unlikely to change minds on the court.)  The legislature starts its short two-month session on Monday, Jan. 11th. I think there will be at least one charter school bill in the legislature (I'm hearing there may be two which would make it interesting.  I'm also betting one of them will have Rep. Eric Pettigrew's name on it.)  Now, there are three major issues with the current law that would need to be fixed, two of them constitutional, and I think those two come with so much baggage, that a bill can't be created, vetted by both legislators and the public, amended and then passed.   It could happen but I think that's not likely. I think the charter schools will be opening their doors after the ho...

I've been talking a lot about charter schools lately and both Charlie and I have been speculating what will happen to them due to the Supreme Court's final ruling that the Washington State charter law is unconstitutional.  But I did have an epiphany this morning as the thunder woke me up.  (I'll again state - I'm not a lawyer but I think the issue has been made clear by the Court.) It's really just three days left that charter schools in the state of Washington will exist as charter schools.  How do I know this? One, Monday the 14th is the likely cut-off date for state funding for the schools themselves AND their authorizers.  (I think I understand that the charters have enough state money to finish their December school month.) If a charter school has no state funding and no state oversight, under the current charter law, it's not a charter school. And, to boot, there is no charter law left. Two, the Supreme Court struck down the ENTIRE law.   There...