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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

Senate Reforms: Consolidated School Employee Benefits

Another of the reforms in the Senate’s proposed 2012 supplemental is SSB 6442, which would establish a consolidated purchasing system for public school employee health benefits. (It was passed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee Feb. 23.)

Senate Reforms: Education Funding

As I mentioned yesterday, the newly proposed Senate supplemental includes several reforms.  These include SB 6618, which would repeal Initiatives 728 and 732.  (The bill has seen no action in the legislature so far.)

Seattle Times, Microsoft executive urge action on higher education

Sunday’s Seattle Times carried a strong editorial page call to action. “Losing kids on the path to prosperity” charts a course from early learning through higher education. Editorial page editor Kate Riley explains the urgency. The state of Washington’s education system — and by system, we mean the ways we educate our citizens from birth […]