Seattle Schools Community Forum

Massachusetts-is-a-lot-like-us-so-why-are-its-schools-so-much-better?  This was a good article in the Times this morning (although the only local quote is a business person and not an educator?) Naturally, I had some comments about it as did other readers.  One comment that came up was the comparison of states purely by some demographic measures.  One reader said it should have been Colorado which is also, by geography, as big as Washington state with agriculture AND they spend less.  (I will also point out that Colorado has had some success with their public education reform but also a hotbed of problems with charter schools, takeovers of districts and big spending on school board races by out-of-state donors.) The article points out that Washington students don’t take the international exams but doesn’t say why. Could that be cost?  I'll have to call OSPI and ask.  “The education of all children (in Massachusetts) was seen as a matter, not onl...

There are so many truly "must-read" stories I'm going to group them into different threads. This one?  The "everything but the kitchen sink one." First up, in New London, Connecticut , the school board has postpone the hiring of one Terrence P. Carter as superintendent.  Why?  Because apparently the search firm they hired managed to miss that he had been using "PhD" and "Dr." for at least five years with no accredited degree.  (He lied about going to Stanford and getting his degree when he never even attended it.  What's weird is that he is completing a Ph.D. from a university and will be awarded it in August.  So why lie?)

The US Census recently released data on public education spending.  Press release on the data. At bottom is Utah with $6,212.  Washington State is 30th with $9,483.  Tops is NYC district at a whopping $19,770 with New York State #1 with $19,076. Eight out of nine states in the Northeast region of the U.S. were ranked among the top 15 in current spending per student in 2011. The remaining state in the northeast, Maine, was ranked 17th. Out of the 16 states with the lowest per student spending, 15 were in the South and West regions. The remaining state, South Dakota, was in the Midwest. Keep in mind that the national average is $10,560. Our state does not even fund to the national average. Also, understand that figure is all the money put together, from all sources, and then averaged.  Not every student is funded at that level.  Washington kicks in about $5200 per student (according to the Charter Commission meeting discussion I was at recently). ...

Rep. Reuven Carlyle often speaks about education at his blog . When school started, he wrote a thoughtful thread about his concerns and hopes for education (and gave a shout-out to this blog). He has a real vested interest: My eldest daughter enters Ballard High School as a freshman, my second daughter enters seventh grade at Salmon Bay, my son enters fifth grade at the new Queen Anne Elementary School, and my five year old daughter–the boss of the house– might as well be a freshman at Stanford University. He expresses worry over the state economic forecast and what it might mean for education spending. More than 41% of all state government spending is on public education at the K-12 level. The pressure to make further cuts to education–an area we generally managed to spare relative to other categories of spending–will be insurmountable. The likelihood of a special session is growing. The inability to substantively explore almost any revenue options–including simply c...