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Education reforms from the 2013 legislative sessions

To be sure, the main education headline from the legislative sessions this year was that about $1 billion extra will be spent on K-12 education in 2013-15. A number of reform bills were also enacted, though, including: E2SSB 5329 establishes a process “to assign responsibility to the superintendent of public instruction to intervene in persistently […]

Charter school lawsuit by WEA and others does disservice to students

My column yesterday called the lawsuit filed by the WEA, WASA a last-gasp effort, another instance of losers litigating after being defeated at the polls. I look at some recent data giving high marks to charter school performance across the country and a positive evaluation of Washington’s Charter School Law, adopted as Initiative 1240. I […]

Washington ranks 30th in total school spending per pupil in 2011

A new report from the U.S. Census provides a wealth of data on public school spending. (Links to all the data can be found here.) A look at state revenues and spending per pupil can be found in this spreadsheet, Table 11 from the report. It shows that Washington spent $9,483 per pupil, ranking the state […]

Competitiveness key to landing Boeing 777X: Inslee announces aerospace strategy

Gov. Jay Inslee has joined the competitiveness battle, a high stakes bid to assure that the Boeing 777X is built here. The Seattle Times writes: Gov. Jay Inslee proposes funding a new cargo facility at the Port of Everett, extending Boeing’s tax breaks and streamlining the local permitting process in Everett as part of a […]

STEM, bachelor's degrees and the value of education

A recent Wall Street Journal commentary examined the value of a bachelor’s degree, adding fuel to simmering discussions of the student debt crisis, young adult unemployment, rising tuition, and degrees without workplace relevance.The piece by Jeffrey J. Selingo should be read in its entirety, but here’s a sample. Think a community-college degree is worth less […]

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 […]