Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update :  the I-1351 campaign has declared victory. My latest tweet:   Yes to lower class sizes in WA continues its winning ways, up 18K votes. Biggest counties trend Yes; should be able to call by Monday eve. After today's ballot drops, Yes on 1351 is up by 18,205 votes (nearly 1%).   Pierce County had 9,000 ballots - they are down to 1500 (at 51.65% Yes) King had 121,000 ballots - they are down to 88,000 (at 54% Yes) Snohomish had 58,000 ballots - they are down to 27,000 (at 50.5% Yes) Spokane has 13,500 ballots outstanding (at 50.23% Yes) So while some counties are just hanging in there, King has, by far, the largest number of ballots and they continue to trend Yes. Biggest approval?  Jefferson County with 60%. Lowest approval?  Colombia County with nearly 65%. I readily admit that, like other measures, voters may have been confused by this measure.  But again, if we all agree to vote Yes to everything for kids, then we will have a ver...

Update 8:25 am The Times is whining that Governor Inslee didn't "lead" by revealing his own vote against 1351. As governor, he should have expressed his concerns with the initiative and let voters know where he stood so they could follow his example. Now, the initiative might require a recount and, if it does pass, it could suck up lawmakers’ time and resources from other matters, and it might not ever be fully implemented. Inslee might have wanted to let voters make up their own minds, but that’s no excuse for sitting back and not doing what voters expect him to do: lead. Since when is ANYONE supposed to reveal their vote (even a Governor)?  I have to wonder if maybe he does support it but worried about the money so he voted no.  Whatever the reason, it's his vote. Next big ballot drop is 4:30 pm. Update 8:05 pm Yes continues upward climb over 4500 votes up with more votes to count. Update 7:40 pm Yes takes the lead...with about 125 votes.  However, K...

The Yes votes still trail as the gap goes from between .90% to .75%.  It's that close. Snohomish county had been barely Yes and now is barely No. Here's where we stand: - there are just over 501K ballots left to count - the three biggest counties have these number of ballots left: King, 130,742; Snohomish 99,000; Spokane 42,000 - Snohomish and Spokane have been extremely close in the votes with the No vote just edging Yes.  In King County, there has been a comfortable 53% lead. So certainly, it is possible 1351 could pull it out. But the trending, like in the charter school vote, is not going towards Yes so I suspect it may be just a very close No. This is another WEA loss (despite those poll numbers just weeks ago).  I was asked about why I thought this measure is as close as it is with those poll numbers showing a comfortable lead.  I didn't see how the questions were phrased in the poll but I suspect that people "like" the idea of lower class size...