Author Archives: Robert Cruickshank

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

NPI to legislators: Support Washington’s kids by funding our public schools — not charters

by Robert Cruickshank

Edi­tor’s Note: This evening, the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is expect­ed to take up a bill that would restore pub­lic fund­ing for pri­vate char­ter schools, in defi­ance of the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court’s clear rul­ing in League of Women Vot­ers v. State of Wash­ing­ton. NPI is ask­ing mem­bers of the House and Sen­ate to […]

Posted inElections

Seattle voters shake up school board, City Council — and fund transit

by Robert Cruickshank

Seat­tle’s elec­tion night results defy easy cat­e­go­riza­tion. Per­haps the best way to describe it is that vot­ers are most­ly con­tent with the pro­gres­sive tra­jec­to­ry their city is on — but want that to go fur­ther, espe­cial­ly when it comes to the school board. All nine City Coun­cil seats were up for elec­tion, and we know […]

Posted inEducation

How to meet Washington’s paramount duty and end the K‑12 funding standoff

by Robert Cruickshank

Today Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee con­venes the first meet­ing of his leg­isla­tive work­group in SeaT­ac to tack­le the issue of how to meet the state Supreme Court’s order to ful­ly fund K‑12 pub­lic schools. It’s good that they’re get­ting down to work, but we should­n’t expect a quick res­o­lu­tion. The Wash­ing­ton Leg­is­la­ture is dead­locked over the […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy

The party of government shutdowns is at it again

by Robert Cruickshank

If there’s one thing you can count on when Repub­li­cans con­trol one part of gov­ern­ment and Democ­rats con­trol the oth­ers, it’s that Repub­li­cans will force a gov­ern­ment shut­down. We saw it in Con­gress in the fall of 2013 when John Boehn­er shut down the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment in an attempt to defund the Patient Pro­tec­tion and […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

Everything you need to know about a state government shutdown

by Robert Cruickshank

Judg­ing by the news today, the pub­lic is start­ing to become aware of the pos­si­bil­i­ty that Repub­li­can intran­si­gence over the bud­get could cause a shut­down of the Wash­ing­ton state gov­ern­ment. If a bud­get isn’t approved by June 30, then start­ing on July 1, many state gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions will slow or cease. As a pub­lic ser­vice, the […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, World Commmunity

NPI to region’s congressional delegation: Stand strong against fast-track for TPP

by Robert Cruickshank

Edi­tor’s Note: The fol­low­ing mes­sage regard­ing the Trans-Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship is being sent today to our region’s Unit­ed States Sen­a­tors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, exclud­ing Ron Wyden and Dave Reichert, who are on record in sup­port of leg­is­la­tion to give Pres­i­dent Oba­ma the author­i­ty to nego­ti­ate a final incar­na­tion of the Trans-Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship that could­n’t be amend­ed by […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

The new, extreme Republican Party has arrived in Washington State

by Robert Cruickshank

Last week’s announce­ment from a group of State Sen­a­tors of a new trans­porta­tion pack­age has dom­i­nat­ed the polit­i­cal news in Wash­ing­ton State. NPI founder Andrew Vil­leneuve explained the numer­ous flaws of this pro­pos­al here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate. But it’s also worth tak­ing a step back and exam­in­ing what this pro­pos­al means for the future […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics

California’s experience proves Governor Inslee is right to pursue cap and trade

by Robert Cruickshank

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s bold yet sen­si­ble step to bring Wash­ing­ton State into the grow­ing North Amer­i­can cap and trade sys­tem is pre­dictably gen­er­at­ing oppo­si­tion from Repub­li­cans. State Sen­a­tor Cur­tis King, the Repub­li­can chair of the Sen­ate Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee, took to the pages of the Seat­tle Times to denounce Gov­er­nor Inslee’s plan. Unfor­tu­nate­ly for King, his attack on […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

School districts across Washington State lead a revolt against failed federal policies

by Robert Cruickshank

At least 28 school dis­tricts in Wash­ing­ton State have cho­sen to fight back against U.S. Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can’s demand that they label suc­cess­ful schools as “fail­ures” due to a law backed by George W. Bush. When the state leg­is­la­ture refused to tie teacher eval­u­a­tions to test scores, Dun­can revoked the state’s waiv­er from Bush’s […]

Posted inEducation

Vermont’s heroic response shows the way on No Child Left Behind letters

by Robert Cruickshank

Ear­li­er this year, Wash­ing­ton leg­is­la­tors reject­ed a demand from U.S. Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can to require teacher eval­u­a­tions to be based, in part, on stu­dent test scores.  One of the pri­ma­ry threats Dun­can used in demand­ing Wash­ing­ton State force schools to teach to the test was that if this change was not made, the state […]