Category: Education

Posted inEducation

Class size initiative too close to call

by Kathleen Reynolds

With 49.5% of the vote, it’s too soon to tell if Ini­tia­tive 1351 will pass. If approved by vot­ers, the ini­tia­tive would low­er pub­lic school class sizes in grades kinder­garten through 12. Washington’s pupil-teacher ratio ranks 47th nation­al­ly, and both the state and nation­al teach­ers unions were the pri­ma­ry sup­port­ers of the cam­paign. State Superintendent […]

Posted inEducation, Live Coverage, Policy Topics

Happening now: Washington State Supreme Court hearing oral arguments on constitutionality of charter schools initiative

by Andrew Villeneuve

This after­noon, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court is hear­ing oral argu­ments in League of Women Vot­ers, et al. v. State of Wash­ing­ton, a law­suit brought by a coali­tion of orga­ni­za­tions that con­tend that Ini­tia­tive 1240 (which autho­rized the cre­ation of char­ter schools in Wash­ing­ton) is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. If you’re inter­est­ed in watch­ing or lis­ten­ing live, tune […]

Posted inBreaking News, Education, Policy Topics

Supreme Court finds Legislature in contempt for failing to fully fund Washington’s schools

by Andrew Villeneuve

This morn­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly found the State of Wash­ing­ton — and more specif­i­cal­ly, the State Leg­is­la­ture — in con­tempt for fail­ing to com­ply with its ear­li­er rul­ings in the McCleary case, which found that the state is not ful­fill­ing its para­mount duty under Arti­cle IX to make ample pro­vi­sion for the […]

Posted inBreaking News, Education, Policy Topics

Washington State Supreme Court agrees to hear constitutional challenge to I‑1240

by Andrew Villeneuve

It looks like with­in a year or two, we should final­ly have an answer to the ques­tion, Does the Con­sti­tu­tion of Wash­ing­ton State allow for char­ter schools? That’s because the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court says it has agreed to take up a legal chal­lenge to Ini­tia­tive 1240, the char­ter schools mea­sure nar­row­ly approved by Washington […]

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 […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Education, Events, Live Coverage

LIVE from Detroit: Turn on the water! Panel addresses city’s unconscionable shutoffs

by Rennie Sawade

Peter Ham­mer, a law pro­fes­sor from Wayne State Uni­ver­si­ty opens the dis­cus­sion. He began by intro­duc­ing the con­cept of the “three R’s of Detroit” which include “Race, Region­al­ism, and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.” He spoke most about “Spa­cial Racism” and demon­strat­ed by show­ing a map of Detroit areas col­or cod­ed to indi­cate vary­ing lev­el of eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties. Areas […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Policy Topics

Republicans (predictably) filibuster Elizabeth Warren’s bill to ease student loan debt

by Andrew Villeneuve

A bill spon­sored by Mass­a­chu­setts Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren to ease stu­dent loan debt has sad­ly become the lat­est wor­thy piece of leg­is­la­tion to be stalled in the Unit­ed States Sen­ate by the Repub­li­can Par­ty, which might as well offi­cial­ly rename itself the Par­ty of No (because that is its answer to just about every good idea). […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy

Washington legislators reject Arne Duncan’s demand, refuse to force schools to teach to the test

by Robert Cruickshank

Yes­ter­day the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture adjourned with­out tak­ing action on two bills that would have tight­ly linked teacher eval­u­a­tions to stu­dent test scores, despite plen­ty of evi­dence doing so is a bad idea. Leg­is­la­tors faced an enor­mous amount of pres­sure to pass these bills from U.S. Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can, who threat­ened to revoke the state’s […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy

How Jay Inslee can stand up for Washington’s kids

by Robert Cruickshank

In the wake of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate’s remark­able, bipar­ti­san revolt against stan­dard­ized test­ing man­dates, the issue has rock­et­ed to the top of the state’s polit­i­cal agen­da. It was a promi­nent issue across the state yes­ter­day at the var­i­ous leg­isla­tive town halls. Edu­ca­tion reform groups are mobi­liz­ing to reverse the Sen­ate’s deci­sion, voic­ing con­cern that as […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy

Washington should follow California’s lead and resist flawed federal education demands

by Robert Cruickshank

Next week Wash­ing­ton Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee will meet with U.S. Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can to dis­cuss the state’s waiv­er from the require­ments of the failed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Last year Dun­can’s depart­ment threat­ened to revoke the waiv­er unless the state leg­is­la­ture man­dat­ed that dis­tricts include stu­dent test scores in teacher eval­u­a­tions. Currently […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy

Washington State Senate revolts against teaching to the test in key vote

by Robert Cruickshank

Ever since Rod­ney Tom and Tim Shel­don facil­i­tat­ed the coup that gave Repub­li­cans con­trol of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, true bipar­ti­san­ship in that body has been a rar­i­ty. Tom’s dis­ci­plined right-wing cau­cus have bat­tled Sen­ate Democ­rats over every­thing from repro­duc­tive rights to trans­porta­tion choic­es to the state’s con­sti­tu­tion­al oblig­a­tion to ful­ly fund our pub­lic schools. […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Education, Elections, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Navy veteran Matt Isenhower announces he’s challenging Republican Andy Hill for Senate

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s effort to recap­ture the state Sen­ate got a big boost today with the announce­ment that the par­ty has found a chal­lenger to take on fresh­man Repub­li­can Andy Hill in the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict. Hill is the Chair­man of the Sen­ate’s Ways & Means Com­mit­tee. Matt Isen­how­er, thir­­ty-three, says he’s running […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Education, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Bring the DREAM Act up for a vote, Senator! An open letter to Majority Leader Rodney Tom

by Andrew Villeneuve

Edi­tor’s note: Ear­li­er today, fol­low­ing the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ light­ning fast pas­sage of the DREAM Act, NPI founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor Andrew Vil­leneuve sent this mes­sage to Sen­a­tor Rod­ney Tom, who rep­re­sents the 48th Dis­trict (Belle­vue, Red­mond, Kirk­land, Med­i­na, Clyde Hill) and is — at least in name — the Major­i­ty Leader of the Washington […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

Steve Sarkisian abandons his players and Husky football for USC’s top coaching job

by Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton’s high­­est-paid employ­ee is head­ed south for a more lucra­tive job. Steve Sark­isian, who was hired to turn around a win­less Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton foot­ball pro­gram five years ago, acknowl­edged ear­li­er today that he has accept­ed the head coach­ing posi­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, which is one of the most elite schools in the […]