Seattle Schools Community Forum

 UPdate:   huge shout-out to the Seahawks Richard Sherman who made a surprise visit to Rainier Beach High School yesterday.  It's already started but the ( NFFTY ) Film Festival for Talented Youth is a good bet for this weekend. Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times tries to talk about ed reform , with the premise that K-12 ed reform is over and now it's about birth to five .  (Geez, do these people just all get the same memo/tweet/fax in the morning?)  Of course, the early years are important but that's not really the point. His real premise (as I see it) is buried in one of his three reasons why everyone should move on: Education inequity is America’s original sin. No, it's not.  America's original sin is a two-fold one.  It is the double whammy of slavery (and its generational legacy) and the treatment of the original peoples of this land.  That, Mr. Kristof, is our "original sin."  As well, it is not education inequity that is reall...

  In what is the biggest story for our district (and all districts in this state) is the likely reality of the Legislature going into a Special Session to complete the budget.    The impacts of this delay to our school districts is big and those impacts should have been considered at the start of the session.

Apparently that's the consideration of some in the Legislature.  Publicola is reporting that Senator Steve Litzow told a group of regional leaders (in a closed door meeting a couple of weeks ago) that after the election, the Legislature would convene for a special session...for transportation.  (It's a gas tax.) Now either the Governor would have to convene this or the Legislature would have to get a 2/3rds vote in both houses to have a special session. So here's the question (bold mine). From Publicola: And this brings us to the "One Question" we've got for Litzow: Is he trying to get the Washington State Supreme Court—which is already holding him (along with the entire legislature) in contempt for failing to come up with a plan to fully fund K-12 education —to throw him in jail now? The legislature needs to come up with about $5 billion extra for K-12 education. The Court would certainly be stunned—after being told by the state's attorne...