Seattle Schools Community Forum

We previously published opinions from several editorial boards from around the state, all chiding the legislature for their lack of progress on fulfilling McCleary to fully funding public education in Washington state. The Seattle Times has finally weighed and they agree.  Choice quotes: Team Olympia can't even punt without squabbling over details. That's a sad, sad commentary that work is of such weak quality and yet it still gets argued over.

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:

Next Tuesday, Feb. 9th, Seattle voters will decide on the Seattle Schools' Operations levy and the BTA levy.  Both are renewals but at higher amounts than were voted on last time. Most of you know this is a sticky wicket for me.  I've frequently spoken out frequently against capital levies but not because they aren't needed, but because I don't think this district spends the money in either levy in a transparent manner.  I'm also not sure of their priorities for spending and, given how much parent unhappiness there is out there on many issues, failing a capital levy might be a good way to get the district's attention. Let's be clear on a few things.

WA GOP gut bipartisan education legislation RELEASE: Jan. 27, 2016  (this came via Senator John McCoy but I'm not sure of its origins) Senate Republicans gut bipartisan McCleary bill

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.

State Superintendent Randy Dorn continues to speak out against the "kick the can down the road" methodology of the Legislature to enact McCleary. Here's his latest press release (and please e-mail your reps and tell them NO:)

From the great West Seattle Blog , a comprehensive wrap-up of the discussion at Director Harris' community meeting.  I was in Olympia yesterday to work with Washington's Paramount Duty, visiting legislators.  Boy, that place was hopping.  You'll be glad to know that nearly all the legislators we visited are just flummoxed by trying to figure out how to fund McCleary.  But no one particularly wants to worry about it this session.

As I mentioned in another thread, Seattle Channel has one episode of City Inside/Out about this short legislative session with Rep. Reuven Carlyle, Rep. Gael Tarleton, Rep Eric Pettigrew and Senator Jamie Pedersen.  Highlights

From the Arizona Republic (another state that underfunds public education): Why didn't GE choose Arizona as its new HQ? 

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.

Lately at the blog, my observation is that much of the discussion around charter schools is about whether they are useful, not useful, take resources from other public schools, etc. I'm not going to be talking about those issues any longer. Why? Two reasons. 1) From some comments, I get the feeling there are some charter supporters (employees?) who are here to stir the pot and/or waste my time. Mind you, I do recognize several names of long-time readers who disagree with me on charter schools and that's fine. However, my stand on charters is clear and unchanged. I have done my research, I have visited some charters and I feel my opinion has been created on a solid foundation. If you disagree, again fine, but you won't be changing my mind. (To note, I separate charter school supporters/funders from charter school families. I don't believe the thinking or knowledge base or agenda is the same in both groups.) 2) Like the Supreme Court, I am not here to argue th...

Let's start with charters. You may recall the "yet another faux ed reform group" called Act Now for Washington Students .  This group is organized by the usual suspects - LEV, Stand for Children, DFER and the Washington State Charter Schools Association.  All these get money from the Gates Foundation. They have formed a PAC that hopes to raise (and presumably spend) $500,000 just for this legislative session to influence legislators on charter schools.  They have already spent $20K on 13 House members (each got $1,000) including Seattle's charter cheerleader, Eric Pettigrew.  This is in addition to the number of print and tv ads running.  It is not cheap to run a local ad during football Sunday. 

Two words - not impressed . This is not to say that the Superintendent dissed the Governor.  No, he liked: Inslee does fund some increases to Jobs for Washington’s Graduates , CorePlus , Career and Technical Education , Healthiest Next Generation initiative , language access for families and discipline equity. And he did raise beginning teacher salaries and increase funding for  mentoring to help decrease our state’s teacher shortage .

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a lengthy article on state public school spending since the Great Recession.  Not a pretty picture.  Washington state comes out - barely - above in most categories but I suspect that is thanks to the Washington State Supreme Court and McCleary. Lots of graphs to dive into, pretty meaty insights here. Also, related to funding, is this article from SCOPE (Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education),  How Money Makes a Difference: The Effects of School Finance Reforms on Outcomes for Low Income Students.  It's from May 2014 but ties in nicely here.

Over at Representative Chad Magendanz' Facebook page, there's quite the discussion over fulfilling McCleary and also what to do about charter schools.  He has much to say on both topics. He starts with this: Our bipartisan group working on the charter fix remains firmly committed to addressing the issues identified in the Supreme Court’s ruling and keeping our charter school doors open. The Senate committee testimony Thursday really highlighted the need for these innovative schools that serve our most impoverished areas, and the timing of the Court’s press release was particularly cruel to the students who travelled down to Olympia to show their support. Again, as if the Court has time to tell their staff to keep them updated on what groups come to Olympia to speak to legislators.  That's just not plausible.   Also, that "bipartisan group" - I think their one Dem might be Seattle's Rep. Eric Pettigrew who seems to make it his life's work to ju...

Or rather, the Boston Globe.   I had many people send me links to this story that appeared in the Globe on Saturday, Nov. 21st.  It's part of their "Divided Nation" series and I hope to read more of the articles ( they cover a number of topics, not just public education.) Here was a self-described progressive state with a Democratic governor and House, an electorate that last year voted to improve school funding, and many cash-flush corporations famished for qualified graduates. If a solution to gridlock couldn’t be found here, how could other states — or the other Washington, the nation’s capital — break out of their political stalemates?

From The Washington Post's The Answer Sheet, a story about Indiana governor, Mike Pence,   remark that teachers "shouldn't take it personally" when their students' scores plummet because of a new state test.  One teacher, Donna Roof, a 30-year veteran teacher, answered back.  (In Indiana, teacher evaluations do use test scores although the Governor says that, given the test is new, they get a one-year reprieve.)

Where are we with the Washington State charter law? As usual, waiting on the Supreme Court.  The last action that I see is that four former state attorneys general — Slade Gorton, Ken Eikenberry, Chris Gregoire and Rob McKenna - filed a friend of the court document, asking the Court to reconsider. This was filed right at the end of October which may have been on purpose - the Court does have to read and consider everything filed. I think the Court will politely tell all these people - thanks for the input but we got it right the first time.  They will say thanks for the input but outcomes from the ruling ("this will hurt other education initiatives the Legislature funds") fall on the Legislature to solve.  But the ruling on charters is separate from those. I think the one bone the Court will throw out is asking the Legislature to fund the existing charters thru the end of the school year.  Given how late the Court ruled on the challenge and now, the lateness o...