Blog

Washington gets generally high marks in new U.S. Chamber report, lags in "talent pipeline"

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its annual report on states’ economic and policy performance, with a special focus on small business. The 2013 Enterprising States report provides a lot of good, well-documented information for business owners and policymakers. We’ve written about it before before. As the state did last year, Washington shows up well. […]

Prioritizing education spending

Last week, Brian Rosenthal of the Times wrote a story about the amount of education spending in the budget proposals. He writes, You may have heard that lawmakers are proposing to dramatically increase funding for public schools in response to a state Supreme Court order. You may not have heard that some of them plan […]

Skilled worker shortage starts with high school

Education Week carries a short item on the shortage of skilled manufacturing workers. It’s consistent with what we posted on yesterday regarding a new study of the skills gap in Washington. The EW story has this additional insight. In Minnesota, 13 percent of all jobs are in manufacturing, and the average pay is about $56,000 […]

STEMming the skills gap – better education boosts the economy

In my column this morning I address the recent Washington Roundtable/Boston Consulting Group report on the skills gap. It’s an urgent problem, one that’s costing us jobs now. Combining analyses of publicly-available employment and education data with executive interviews, BCG was able to document the economic impact of the skills gap in Washington. The researchers […]

Closing skill gap expands opportunity, adds jobs, boosts economy

A new report released by the Boston Consulting Group and the Washington Roundtable identifies the benefits to state residents and employers from closing the “skills gap” – the mismatch between the jobs available and the qualifications of the workers seeking employment. Here are some highlights from the press release. See also the complete Great Jobs Within […]

STEM education increases opportunity, drives economy

The shortage of workers with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills means that too many jobs go unfilled even as too many Washingtonians need jobs. The mismatch is the them of a good op-ed by AWB president Don Brunell in the the Bellingham Herald. Simply put, employers need people proficient in science, technology, engineering […]

The legislative education funding challenge: How do you solve a problem like McCleary?

My column in the current issue of AWB’s Washington Business considers the state budget problem. It was written weeks ago, but holds up I think. With next week’s revenue forecast likely to be down (and a new caseload forecast tomorrow apt to show increased costs), the challenge is a bit tougher than it looked in […]

Repealing tax preferences is not a cure-all

Andrew Garber reports that Governor Inslee will propose “closing some tax loopholes” to fund education. (He has yet to announce which “loopholes” he’s talking about.) On TVW this morning, the governor said, I was very clear that the way we should move forward to fund our schools and improve our education is rather than from […]

New poll shows teachers and voters agree on need for performance data and better education outcomes

A new poll commissioned by Excellent Schools Now, an education reform coalition, shows strong support by voters and teachers for better performance data, as well as agreement that the U.S. education system is not producing college- and career-ready students. Key poll results are here.   The group polled 500 voters and 500 teachers in late […]

Public libraries caught up in education funding lawsuit in West Virginia

As I wrote here, several states are facing education funding lawsuits. Apparently West Virginia is too, with a bit of a twist: In a special act, the legislature required nine counties in the state, including Kanawha, to use a potion of their state education funding to provide for public libraries. Public libraries in the 46 […]