New Brief on How Public Schools Fare in 2011-13 Budgets
Following last week’s brief on proposed 2011-13 expenditures in the human services budget area, today we take a look at public schools. (See also this brief for an overview of the House and Senate budget plans.) Spending on public schools would increase over 2009-11 levels in both the House- and Senate-passed budgets. Maintenance level changes […]
March 23 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Keeping the best teachers in the classroom when it's necessary to downsize
That’s my subject in today’s Everett Herald column. Right now, layoffs are handled by seniority — last hired, first fired, with no regard for teacher performance. A pair of bills (HB 1609 and SB 5399) would create a performance-based system for staff reductions. The legislation calls for making layoff decisions based on teachers’ average evaluation […]
February 28 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
An Oscar miss on an education breakthrough
As I rarely go to movies and don't own a TV, my thoughts on the Academy Awards are not worth sharing. So I'll just refer you to AWB president Don Brunell's post on Waiting for Superman.
February 20 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Tuition Transfer Update
As I discussed in an earlier post, the Senate version of the early action supplemental budget cut general fund–state funding to the higher education coordinating board (HEC Board) for the state need grant by $25.4 million. The Senate supplemental budget backfilled this loss in two steps. The first step was an appropriation of $25.4 million […]
February 10 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Tuition Transfer
This follow-up to Emily’s earlier post on the Senate’s early action supplemental budget proposal (Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1086) provides a bit more detail with respect to higher education. The Senate-passed early action budget (the Senate Ways and Means Committee staff summary of the chair’s proposal is available here, the bill [big file] is available […]
February 09 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Reducing the number of elected state officials and increasing accountability
That’s the theme of my column today. The Research Council has looked at the issue many times over the years. Gov. Gregoire’s call for education reorganization, with specific implications for the elected superintendent of public instruction, raises the question: why stop there? Let me know what you think.
January 17 , 2011 - Emily Makings
About Those Tuition Increases…
The theme of this week's posts at the Becker-Posner blog is tuition increases at public universities. Posner argues that keeping tuition low for all students–regardless of ability to pay–is unwarranted: In any event, there is no case at all from an overall social standpoint for subsidizing students who would pay full college tuition, without the […]