Tag: School Funding

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Washington’s Senate Republicans pass bill transferring education funding to highways

by Andrew Villeneuve

Prov­ing once again that their Fund edu­ca­tion first rhetoric is noth­ing but a false front, Repub­li­cans today pushed a bill through the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate that trans­fers sales tax rev­enue col­lect­ed on trans­porta­tion projects out of the state’s gen­er­al fund and into its high­way fund. Since the gen­er­al fund prin­ci­pal­ly pays for our schools and […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

LIVE from Bellevue: Governor Inslee unveils plan for investing in Washington’s schools

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good evening from New­port High School in Belle­vue, Wash­ing­ton. I’m here with sev­er­al dozen oth­er activists, reporters, and cit­i­zens to par­tic­i­pate in a town hall on edu­ca­tion with Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee and his staff. The gov­er­nor is using the event to unveil his plan to strength­en Wash­ing­ton’s schools, which his office is call­ing the most […]

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, 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

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 inBreaking News, Education, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

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

by 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, Elections, Policy Topics

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

by 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, Litigation, Policy Topics

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

by 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

by 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

by 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 […]