Mary Strow

House committee explores K-12 financing

Yesterday in Olympia the House Finance Committee looked at how public schools are funded, here in Washington and nationwide. Committee staff prepared in-depth reports with lots of information (the Research Council in 2013 published a report on on K-12 financing, comparing Washington’s funding to other states’. You can read that here). Some highlights: Washington differs […]

More on charter schools: The Los Angeles experience

The Washington State Charter Schools Commission met last week to "consider how it can keep monitoring the independent public schools while making plans to dismantle itself" (it also suspended applications for new charter schools).  The commission finds itself in this strange position after the state Supreme Court, controversially, ruled in September that charter schools are unconstitutional. Some lawmakers are considering ways to counteract the ruling, […]

Policy Today podcast: Where does Washington rank on education, economy & transportation?

InFocus podcast: Minimum wage, marijuana revenues, carbon cap & recycling

Washington scores good – not great – on new "Opportunity Index"

Our friends at Opportunity Washington are out today with a brand-new assessment – called the “Opportunity Index” – of how Washington stacks up against the rest of the country on education, transportation and economic vitality. In partnership with the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable, the Research Council conducted a data-driven analysis of performance of all 50 states […]

Governor's new carbon-cap rule could include Seattle's lone steel manufacturing plant

Last month, Gov. Jay Inslee directed the state Department of Ecology to start “writing a rule that would cap and reduce carbon pollution.” This directive came after the governor’s carbon cap-and-trade proposal died in the 2015 legislative session. Ecology also released a list of entities it says emit at least 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide […]

InFocus: Possible charter schools ruling re-do, construction jobs, paid family leave study

This week we’re discussing the Attorney General’s request that the state Supreme Court reconsider its ruling that charter schools are unconstitutional, the number of construction jobs staying essentially flat statewide, and a federal grant for Washington to study the feasibility of paid family leave implementation. In this episode:

Policy Today: The elusive silver bullet of tax policy

Taxes: The grass is always greener…

With the first meeting today of Gov. Inslee’s legislative McCleary workgroup, we’re likely to see another round of calls for new taxes – specifically, an income tax and/or a capital gains tax – to fund the rest of the state’s K-12 obligations. Arguments in favor of new forms of taxation include: Washington’s tax system is unfair and regressive, […]

InFocus podcast: Rent control, WA wine industry, state revenue & employment reports, and charter schools