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90 Seconds podcast: Charter schools help urban minority, low-income students most

Stanford study shows improved charter school performance – especially in urban areas

Even before the state Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional, charter schools were a topic that engendered heated debate (at least here in Washington; charter schools are perfectly constitutional in 41 other states). Therefore, data, backed up by solid research, provides a welcome relief from the rhetoric. For some years now the Center for Research on […]

What's to be done about charter schools, part 2

Yesterday I went over some of the possible responses to the state Supreme Court’s decision that charter schools are unconstitutional. I neglected to bring up an odd point from the majority opinion, which comes in the footnote to this sentence (page 12-13): . . . under the terms of the Act’s provisions the source of […]

What's to be done about charter schools?

The Olympian had a good article over the weekend on the various ideas floating around about how to resolve the charter school situation. These include: Ask the Court to reconsider, which the attorney general is planning to do. This “is a long shot.” Amend the constitution. Make charters more like alternative schools, which are overseen […]

Highlights from the Supreme Court opinion that charter schools are unconstitutional

To the surprise of many, Friday afternoon the state Supreme Court found charter schools to be unconstitutional. Voters approved them with Initiative 1240 in 2012, and Washington’s first public charter school opened last year. Eight additional public charters opened this fall. In 2013, the League of Women Voters of Washington, the Washington Education Association and […]

Possible teacher strike in Seattle centers on pay, instructional time

Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle teachers union agreed over the Labor Day weekend on two items: recess time and pay for substitute teachers. As of this afternoon, however, teacher pay and the length of the school day remain major points of contention. Without a deal today, teachers will go on strike tomorrow – what […]

The latest news on teacher strikes

Teacher strikes are dominating local news headlines: The Seattle teachers' union yesterday voted to strike starting next Wednesday, Sept. 9 (the first day of school), if they don't reach an agreement with the Seattle School District. Pasco teachers, who've been on strike since the first day of school in that district on Sept. 1, were […]

Improving education, strengthening the economy

Opportunity Washington recently pointed out fascinating research (summarized here) which indicates: “that national average student performance at age 15 on an internationally standardized mathematics test is predictive of that nation’s future economic growth.” It’s yet more proof that a good education is not only empowering and life-changing for individual students, but for entire nations as well. It raises […]

90 Seconds Podcast: The McCleary series

We're starting a series of 90 Seconds podcasts specifically on the McCleary ruling (in 2012 the state Supreme Court ruled that the State of Washington is unconstitutionally failing to fully fund K-12 basic education; that decision and all subsequent McCleary filings and rulings are here). Given the importance of McCleary, and the amount of time […]

Policy Today podcast: Analyzing the latest McCleary order

Last week the state Supreme Court ordered a $100,000-per-day penalty against the state for not producing a plan to reach full K-12 basic education by 2018. Lawmakers have made significant progress, but have a highly complex task ahead of them.