"Brainpower is spreading out:" More cities attracting the college educated
In the New Geography, Joel Kotkin reports that America’s college graduates are increasingly found outside the dominant metro areas. …The New York Times recently opined that “college graduates gravitate to places with many other college graduates and the atmosphere that creates.” Yet an analysis of Census data shared with Forbes by demographer Wendell Cox tells a different story. […]
July 17 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
State budget sustainability and Medicaid … hard times (still) ahead
A new report from the State Budget Crisis Task Force, headed by Richard Ravitch and Paul Volcker, points to deep sustainability problems for state governments long after the economy recovers (may that day come swiftly). From the Wall Street Journal: Rising pension and health-care costs are hampering states’ efforts to improve infrastructure and provide college […]
July 17 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Good news: more online education coming to UW
Today’s Seattle Times report that the University of Washington has signed on with Coursera to offer online education represents good news and a welcome extension of a model designed to expand access to higher education. Coursera is “a huge experiment that is transforming the face of higher education,” said Daphne Koller, a Stanford University computer-science […]
July 11 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
WWU collective bargaining agreement and 16 percent tuition hike
Gov. Gregoire recently wrote Western Washington University president Bruce Shephard expressing grave concern with the school’s faculty collective bargaining agreement. Here’s the Seattle Times’ summary and context: …the governor criticized the university’s decision to raise salaries 5.25 percent this school year and 4.25 percent each of the following two years in addition to boosting department-chair […]
July 05 , 2012 - Emily Makings
The Economist on Charter Schools
Next week’s Economist magazine has an article on charter schools. The article is published online just before signatures are due for the public charter school initiative in Washington (I-1240). Dick has written on the initiative and charter schools here, here, and here. As Dick mentioned, state Rep. Eric Pettigrew has said, Forty-one other states have […]
June 14 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
AWB endorses charter school initiative
In a recent column I wrote about the public charter school initiative filed by several education reform groups here. The column focused primarily on the remarkable success of Louisiana’s Recovery School District, a majority-charter district. The RSD has been responsible for the turnaround of New Orleans schools. This week the Association of Washington Business endorsed […]
June 07 , 2012 - Emily Makings
State Auditor on Spending in Public Schools
Yesterday I pointed out the legislature’s new 2012 Citizen’s Guide to K-12 Finance. The state auditor’s office has also released a report on public school spending. The performance audit considers: What percentage of Washington’s educational dollars is spent on classroom instruction, and how does it compare with other states? How do expenditures at individual school […]
June 06 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Public Schools Financing
The Senate Ways and Means Committee has released its 2012 Citizen's Guide to K-12 Finance.It talks about recent court rulings related to state funding of education (and legislative responses to them), looks at how much is spent on education (by several different measures) and where the money goes, and makes some comparisons to other states. […]
May 30 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Public charter schools play important role in improving education
Last week, a coalition of education reform groups filed an initiative to allow public charter schools in Washington. The coalition including the League of Education Voters, Stand for Children and Democrats for Education Reform has until July 6 to collect nearly 250,000 valid voter signatures. In my column this morning, I write about the success of […]
April 26 , 2012 - Emily Makings
New Brief: Repealing I-728, Grading Teachers, and Other 2012 Education Reforms
The legislature passed several education reform bills this year, which we consider in this policy brief. Significantly, as part of the budget compromise, legislators finally repealed I-728. By doing so, they helped clear the way for basic education funding needs. They also improved the 2013-15 fiscal situation by removing I-728 from the maintenance level. In […]