Category: Education

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Education, Healthcare, Live Coverage, Open Government, Our Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning, Technology, World Commmunity

LIVE from San Jose: Ask the Leader!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Good after­noon from San Jose! Our morn­ing ses­sions are now over, and it’s on to our lunchtime keynote: Ask the Leader with House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Nan­cy Pelosi. This is for­mer (and hope­ful­ly future) Speak­er Pelosi’s third appear­ance at Net­roots Nation. She pre­vi­ous­ly took ques­tions at NN ’08 in Austin and NN ’10 in Las Vegas. I’m […]

Posted inBreaking News, Education, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Special session to begin on May 13th; Inslee says budget negotiations will continue

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A spe­cial ses­sion of the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture will begin two weeks from tomor­row in order to give law­mak­ers more time to ham­mer out a bud­get for the 2013–2015 bien­ni­um, con­sid­er a trans­porta­tion pack­age, and address pol­i­cy pri­or­i­ties that Sen­ate Repub­li­cans refused to vote on, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee announced at a press con­fer­ence in the […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy

Inslee and Higher Ed: Disappointing

by Patrick Stickney

The past week has not been a good one for high­er edu­ca­tion. As Gov­er­nor Inslee (look­ing back to before Novem­ber, it feels nice to call him ‘Gov­er­nor’), released his bud­get pri­or­i­ties last Thurs­day, it includ­ed a rec­om­men­da­tion for tuition to increase 3–5% (3 per­cent for region­al uni­ver­si­ties like West­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, 5 per­cent for Washington […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy

Returning to 2/3rds rule an attack on our colleges

by Patrick Stickney

Last week when Tim Eyman’s I‑1053 was declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al there was much cheer­ing and rejoic­ing across the state of Wash­ing­ton, not least through the halls of Face­book and Twit­ter. Many of these voic­es were stu­dents at our uni­ver­si­ties, who have seen more than 1.4 bil­lion cut from our state high­er edu­ca­tion sys­tem since 2009, increased […]

Posted inEducation

Education supporters agree: Restoration of majority rule is an opportunity

by Kathleen Reynolds

Peo­ple from who care about kids are cel­e­brat­ing Thursday’s Wash­ing­ton Supreme Court rul­ing strik­ing down the pro­vi­sion at the heart of Tim Eyman’s I‑601 clones. Par­ents, teach­ers and oth­er advo­cates for great pub­lic schools agree that sim­ply cut­ting fund­ing from oth­er vital pub­lic ser­vices and real­lo­cat­ing the mon­ey to edu­ca­tion — the only option on […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

Senate Republicans want to assign letter grades to Washington’s public schools

by Sarajane Siegfriedt

Wash­ing­ton State Sen­a­tor Steve Lit­zow (R‑41st Dis­trict; Mer­cer Island) has intro­duced a bill that would assign a let­ter grade to pub­lic schools and school dis­tricts in the name of “account­abil­i­ty.” High-per­­for­m­ing mid­dle, junior high, and high schools would receive finan­cial rewards from the state. Lit­zow’s pro­pos­al turns on its head the pol­i­cy of pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al funding […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Legislative Advocacy

Students won’t stay silent on high tuition

by Patrick Stickney

I lob­bied on Mon­day. That may not seem like much, see­ing as hun­dreds of peo­ple did the same thing on the exact same day. But see­ing as I’m a stu­dent at a uni­ver­si­ty, for some, it might be a big thing indeed. I was there with 59 oth­er West­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents who met with more than 60% percent […]

Posted inEducation, Healthcare, Our Environment

King (Err… Regent) Coal

by Patrick Stickney

A sign that nobody likes doing the wrong thing every sin­gle time, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Regent Craig Cole (a much-ref­er­enced-to coin­ci­den­tal last name)wrote an op-ed pub­lished in the Belling­ham Her­ald advo­cat­ing for increased fund­ing of our high­er edu­ca­tion sys­tem. Craig Cole is also the Pres­i­dent of Brown & Cole, Inc. and the spokesman for SSA […]

Posted inEducation, Elections, Policy Topics

Randy Dorn says I‑1240 is unconstitutional; he may go to court to overturn the initiative

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Schools Randy Dorn is con­tem­plat­ing legal action against I‑1240, the char­ter schools ini­tia­tive financed by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Jeff Bezos, Q13 Fox’s C.R. Dou­glas report­ed last night. “Cre­at­ing a new agency under the governor’s office to over­see ten to forty pub­lic schools, to me, is a clear vio­la­tion of […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Events, Live Coverage

LIVE from Providence: Educational Opportunity & Economic Dignity

by Patrick Stickney

How is edu­ca­tion­al equal­i­ty linked to the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion on the ground? I came to this dis­cus­sion between the Amer­i­can Fed­er­a­tion of Teach­ers and Ilyse Hogue of the Nation. Like many of the pan­els so soon after the Wis­con­sin recall, con­ver­sa­tion start­ed out about the attacks which have been made against unions, and the fact […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Litigation, Policy Topics

Frank Blethen, self-proclaimed champion of higher education, doesn’t want Chris Gregoire intervening in lawsuit against I‑1053

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A few days ago, Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire let it be known that she intends to ask the courts to rule on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Tim Eyman’s I‑1053, which was chal­lenged by a group of par­ents, teach­ers, and law­mak­ers in a law­suit last spring. Gre­goire is a defen­dant in the law­suit (which is being defend­ed by […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

Seattle Public Schools to get a chance for a fresh start with Enfield’s departure

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Inter­im Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools Super­in­ten­dent Susan Enfield, who took over man­age­ment of the state’s largest school dis­trict after the board oust­ed Mon­i­ca Good­loe-John­­son back in the spring, announced today that she will “nei­ther seek nor accept” the per­ma­nent posi­tion of super­in­ten­dent, which means she will depart­ing the dis­trict mid­way through 2012 when her cur­rent contract […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

Seattle Times again duplicitously portrays itself as a champion of public education

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

They’re at it again. Two months after launch­ing a disin­gen­u­ous pub­lic rela­tions cam­paign to urge the state Leg­is­la­ture to prop­er­ly fund high­er edu­ca­tion, the Blethen-con­trolled Seat­tle Times has devot­ed more than half a spread at the end of its Sun­day A sec­tion to not one, not two, not three, but four unsigned, buz­z­­word-filled edi­to­ri­als demand­ing that […]

Posted inEducation

Governor Gregoire steps up to mediate negotiations to end Tacoma teacher strike

by Wes Murry

After sev­en days with­out school for thou­sands of Taco­ma stu­dents, Gov. Chris Gre­goire has stepped up to medi­ate talks between Taco­ma Pub­lic Schools and the Taco­ma Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion. After fail­ing to reach an agree­ment today, the gov­er­nor called for school dis­trict offi­cials and mem­bers of the teach­ers union to nego­ti­ate in her office. Mem­bers of […]