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Various and sundry links

“Cancelling Washington R&D Incentives Will Erase Success,” by Tom Ranken and Eric Viola of the Washington Clean Technology Alliance, in Xconomy: “Before the programs, Washington tax law was punitive to R&D growth—and the job growth that goes with it.” (Here’s our policy brief on the R&D incentives: “Supporting Research and Development with Responsible Tax Policy.”) […]

Cost effective education spending includes charters

How is education like baseball? When money is no object, cost effectiveness is less important. Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas links education and Moneyball in a post for EducationNext: The cost of public education is largely ignored by both the media and education policymakers. Many people think it is awkward, complicated or destroys […]

The "shortsightedness" of "pay it forward" college financing

Via the University of Washington’s Office of Planning and Budgeting blog, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has a new report on the “pay it forward” (PIF) higher education funding idea that has received a lot of play around the country recently. (Including in Washington, as a Washington Business Alliance blog post […]

Class size Initiative 1351 hides costs, consequences

My column today compares and contrasts Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1325 with the Washington Education Association’s Initiative 1351. The former failed to qualify for the November ballot; the latter apparently did. Eyman’s sales tax reduction would have cost the state about $2 billion over the two-year budget cycle without specifying what programs and services would be […]

State Supreme Court orders lawmakers to explain why they should not be held in contempt on school funding

The Court’s has long signaled its impatience with the legislature’s slow progress toward meeting the McCleary obligation to fund basic education. Wait until next year wasn’t going to work again. Yesterday’s action – an order to appear at a show cause hearing – steps up the pressure. The state’s response to the order is to be […]

Expanding access to higher education: online learning, improving transition from 2-year to 4-year institutions

Two good articles on higher education were published today. One theme they share: we need to focus on increasing access while keeping tuition affordable. In the Columbian, Don Brunell writes of the success being experienced by WGU Washington (that’s Western Governors University). The university serves working adults and the 950,000 state residents who have started […]

Filing week begins: Quiz candidates on education funding, transportation, and the skills gap

This is the filing week, when candidates declare their intent to run in the 2014 elections. This year’s ballot includes all 10 U.S. House seats, including the open seat in the 4th District in Eastern Washington where Doc Hastings is retiring, the secretary of state’s office said. Also on the ballot are all 98 members of […]

Legislative response to state Supreme Court's McCleary mandate to fund basic education: "We tried. Wait until next year."

The Legislature met its deadline to report to the state Supreme Court on progress toward meeting the McCleary funding requirements. (Background here.) The 58-page report did not lay out a specific, year-to-year funding plan, but did describe the progress lawmakers have already made, primarily in the 2013 legislative session. The committee charged with reporting to the […]

Teachers' union objects to tying test scores to teacher evaluation; Washington becomes first state to lose education waiver

As expected, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a letter to Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn today declined to renew the state’s education waiver.   Dorn pulls no punches in his press release. “Washington state has been doing great work under our waiver agreement,” Dorn said. “We have developed our own system that more […]

More on union-backed class size reduction initiative – costly and unfunded

In my column today, I write about I-1351, the class size reduction initiative endorsed and promoted by the Washington Education Association. We first wrote about it here. I note that the initiative bears some resemblance to Initiative 728, passed by the voters in 2000 as an unfunded mandate. Like I-728, I-1351 doesn’t raise taxes. It […]