Blog

A capital gains tax for Washington? Probably not, but they're discussing it again.

Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray has proposed a new capital gains tax. Murray is proposing a 5 percent tax on capital gains to start in 2015, which he said would raise between roughly $600 and $700 million per year to help fund basic education and higher education. He proposed something similar last year. Under Murray’s […]

Lawsuits and education finance policy

An article in Education Week calls attention to education funding lawsuits that are pending in several states, complicating policymaking: As state budgets slowly recover from several years of economic contraction and stagnation, significant court battles continue to play a related yet distinct role in K-12 policy, even in states where the highest courts have already […]

New Brief: Comparative Analysis of School Funding

In a new special report, we look at school funding in Washington — level of funding, sources of funding, and how that funding compares to other states. As it turns out, Washington’s schools are funded heavily from state sources: Washington ranks 11th nationally in state revenues per student, but it ranks 40th in revenues from […]

Options for basic education spending

In a blog post yesterday, state Rep. Ross Hunter provides a good overview of the education funding problem in Washington. He notes the report of the Joint Task Force on Education Funding (JTFEF), which was released December 31, 2012. Created by House Bill 2824 last year, the task force was charged with “developing a proposal […]

The Effectiveness of Higher School Spending and Class Size Reductions

One of the main issues to be tackled this legislative session is education funding. Gov. Gregoire’s 2013-15 budget proposal calls for a “$1 billion down payment on the $3.4 billion in new K-12 spending the state has committed to over the next six years.” Additionally, the budget proposal would reduce K-2 class sizes in high […]

Talent shortage a bigger threat to software industry than the fiscal cliff?

Here in Microsoft’s backyard, we’ve heard this story for a while. Today Investors Business Daily leads with the tale of the tech talent shortage. The big challenge facing the U.S. software industry might not be the economy, looming fiscal cliff or growing competition. First things first — the companies are begging for qualified job candidates. […]

Gov. Gregoire proposes new taxes in final budget release

Gov. Chris Gregoire offered her final biennial budget proposal this morning. In addition to required “current revenues” proposal – one that doesn’t rely on new taxes – she presents a plan to make the billion-dollar downpayment on the increased public school funding required by the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. From the governor’s press release: […]

From fiscal cliff to affordable care act, plenty of post-election unfinished business

Remember when elections settled things? OK, I don’t either. But there’s more than the usual clutter of unresolved issues on the agenda this year. The Los Angeles Times has a nice roundup of the states of health care, as more Republican governors opt not to set up the state exchanges prescribed by the Affordable Care […]

Charter Schools and Low-Performing Students

In an October 2012 preliminary working paper, Ron Zimmer of Vanderbilt and Cassandra Guarino of Indiana University consider whether public charter schools “push out” low-performing students. The idea is that charter schools might try to improve their performance by “educating fewer challenging students.” But, as the authors say, “the claim of ‘pushing out’ low-achieving students […]

Charter Schools: Flexibility, Variety, Accountability

This week Partnership for Learning, along with UW’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, released “Examining Charters: How public charter schools can work in Washington state.” The report should be useful for voters as they decide whether to approve Initiative 1240, which would allow a limited number of public charter schools in Washington. (Our policy brief […]