Seattle Schools Community Forum

Locally (and, of sorts, public education news) comes the announcement that 37th district Senator Adam Kline will not be running to retain his seat.  Naturally, when a senator retires, the obvious replacement often comes from whoever are the representatives in that district (see Jamie Pedersen for Ed Murray).  I am hoping that Rep. Eric Pettigrew runs so that all the ed reform nonsense he has pushed and supported (and seemingly not understood given some of his past statements), he has to explain to voters.  And then he loses.  I also hear that Eric Liu, a great writer, is also thinking of running.  Eric is a great thinker but has never been elected to office.  He is so bright but also his BFF is Nick Hanauer which would (1) fund his campaign but (2) probably get him to support all Hanauer's ed reform push. Also locally, interesting story at KUOW about one family's work to get help for their autistic child , this time with a good outcome in Shoreline Sc...

This summer, Rep. Eric Pettigrew went to a talk by Jeb Bush, a champion of the worst of ed reform (just look at Florida).  Now, in yet another disturbing trend, Pettigrew (who says he's a Dem), is going to accept an award from the Washington Policy Center for his "courage" in standing up for charters.  If I were in the 37th, I'd be suspicious of someone who is so cozy with partisans from the other party. The WPC, which calls itself non-partisan, is nothing of the sort. Here's WPC's  idea for what would be good for Washington State - Eight Ways to Improve Public Schools: -Put the principal in charge -Give parents choice among public schools -Let teachers teach -Double teacher pay -Replace current state tests with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills -Create no-excuses schools -Transparency: Put school budgets and teacher qualifications online, and rate schools based on their ability to educate children -Make the Superintendent of Public Instruction an ap...