Seattle Schools Community Forum

Here's what he said in his speech about public education: As mayor, I will make education at every level the foundation of the city’s work. We need to move from being an educated city to becoming an education city. As Mayor, I will use every possible tool in my toolbox to make sure that our education system is delivering the education and skills that our kids need and our economy demands. I’ll work with the council on bold ideas like universal pre-school and use the Road Map Project’s “Cradle to Career” indicators and milestones to push for better leadership and resources for education.  We can no longer close our eyes to the sad fact that we are failing too many kids—this is not an achievement gap, because these kids have it in them to succeed. It is an opportunity gap, because we have not done what we need to do to lift kids up and give them what they need. We as a city cannot move forward economically while leaving so many of our own kids behind – that kind of...

I had a good interview with Senator Ed Murray recently who will be in the General Election against current mayor, Mike McGinn.  We sat down in his campaign offices to talk. I asked him about what he believes t he role of the Mayor is vis a vis Seattle public education. He said that he believes it has changed from what it was traditionally as something of a cheerleader position to a more visible one.  He believes that the Mayor should push for discussions about changes needed in the district AND in city government to find better academic outcomes.  He said, "Only the Mayor has the position to pull stakeholders together." I told him that sounded a lot like mayoral takeover of the district.

There's a question. I was amused to see Bruce Ramsey, another Seattle Times editorial board member, put out a column today that (oddly) asked Tim Burgess (who you may recall could even stick it out through the primary race), what the mayor of Seattle is and isn't.  Baffling. Here's what the column said about public education: He (Burgess) mentions education. I (Ramsey) object: Seattle Public Schools aren’t under the mayor, and in a mayoral race it is a distraction. Burgess disagreed: The mayor can use the Families and Education Levy to push for high standards. Here's what I said in a comment: As for the schools, the Families and Education should work with the district's direction, not the City's. If the City does not want to provide support to the schools because they disagree with the direction or standards the duly-hired Superintendent decides on, that's their call.    As well, Burgess leaves out the City Council and I expect they ...

From the Times : The candidates who were there had some tough talk for Seattle Public Schools. State Sen. Ed Murray said if he were mayor, he would forge a new partnership with the school district to increase the graduation rate. “The school district has to change,” he said, vowing to make improvements in the graduation rate and how money is targeted — or, he said, “Please yell at me and vote me out of office.”   Usually, the school district blames the state Legislature for district problems, so it was interesting to hear that. Ed Murray is my senator and yes, I am a bit surprised to hear him say this.  He hasn't said a lot about Seattle schools in any pre-mayor bid venue.  His advocacy has been limited (and appreciated) to the Legislature.  Without specifics, this isn't much (and I'm still waiting to interview him so we'll see). Also, note to the Times, the district does not blame the Legislature for all its problems; just the funding ones.  ...

CPPS, Community and Parents for Public Schools, is hosting a Mayoral candidate forum on Education. Tuesday, April 30 6:30 - 8:30pm Garfield High School Commons 400 - 23rd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122 Candidates who have confirmed their attendance: Tim Burgess, Bruce Harrell, Kate Martin, Michael McGinn, Ed Murray, Charlie Staadecker, and Peter Steinbrueck Join these seven candidates running for Mayor of Seattle at the CPPS Mayoral Candidates Forum on Education. Ask questions and learn how the next mayor proposes to help ALL Children receive the support that they need to gain a quality education. Let's make our presence known and send a message to the next mayor of Seattle! Be there and please spread the word!

From Crosscut, an interview with mayoral candidate, Tim Burgess.  Key item: Burgess, his wife, Jolene, and their three children are products of Seattle Public Schools, so it's no surprise he considers it another of his priorities. "I graduated in 1967 and the adults then were talking about North End schools vs. South End schools," he said. "And they are talking about it today. That's a tragedy." It's important, he argued, for the city and the school system to align their resources and efforts for education. One such example: the city's agreement to let its ethics office handle questions for the Seattle school district.   (Note: that did happen with McGinn who didn't need to take over the district to get it done.) Would he push for a mayoral takeover of the school system? Burgess pointed to a recent Center for American Progress study that showed mixed educational results in cities that control of school systems, but said the rep...

He said that on KUOW earlier this week.  I did finally listen to the interview because I had been told he talked a lot about Seattle public education.  I found his remarks kind of all over the place and frankly, I'm glad he's not running.  His main theme seemed to be that mayors should bring change.  And, for Seattle, that would be in public education.  When the host pushed back saying that a mayor like that would hear from the Superintendent and School Board, he said "mayors lead and organize."   Some of what he said: he gave a shout-out to Garfield teachers for standing up against MAP.   he said (repeatedly) that all schools should be "international" schools and we should have a K-12 system of them.  Now, did he define what that meant (and did the host ask)?  No.  I believe, based on his remarks, that he meant all students should learn a second language.  Great Ron, with what money?  I mean we can all talk...

It's an interesting thing to see who has endorsed which campaign around I-1240. First, you can thank me for the Yes side even having an endorsement page because they didn't have one for months.  But I kept calling it out at debates and I guess they got embarrassed.  What is kind of cute is the little mini-bios they have for every single person listed (but it does make the page look longer). For variety, there isn't a lot of comparison.  The Yes is a lot of business groups/ed reformers and, for the elected officials, Republicans (with the "roadkill" Dems thrown in). The No side / No side is quite varied and long on elected officials (but yes, very Democrat-heavy). As far as educators and those in education, there is no comparison.  Educators, administrators and elected officials in education are overwhelmingly against I-1240.  Community groups?  Quite a variety especially up against the Yes side. Newspapers?  Very much for the Yes side but ...