The Education Champ v. the Slacker
Posted on 24. Oct, 2008 by admin.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc7MA5e93-Q]
As you know the governor’s race is close and for education voters, the choice is clear: re-elect Governor Chris Gregoire. Our next governor must be committed to building an education system that prepares every student for life after high school, whether it’s college, job training or work.
The League of Education Voters PAC funded a video about the Education Champ, Governor Chris Gregoire, and the Slacker, Dino Rossi. The video pokes fun at Dino’s claim to the “change” message, yet he doesn’t have any ideas to improve education. Gov. Gregoire is the one talking about funding schools to lower class sizes and pay teachers better.
We’ve posted the Champ v. the Slacker video on Youtube.
Please send it around - and VOTE FOR CHRIS ON NOV. 4th!
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Lisa Macfarlane - Majority Owner
Posted on 24. Oct, 2008 by admin.
Lisa has a new name around this office - Majority Owner. This month Lisa is featured in Seattle Magazine’s 2008 Power List. Honestly, we can’t say we’re surprised - although Lisa is gonna kill me when she sees this blog post. Here’s what Seattle Magazine had to say:
The history-making election may be dominating national headlines and dinner conversations around the country. But we looked at the year’s local headlines—and behind them—to ferret out the people who are changing the landscape and driving conversations in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region.
EDUCATION
Majority Owner
Lisa Macfarlane, director of external affairs, the League of Education Voters
Bio: The 52-year-old New Jersey native got involved with school levy issues in 1995 following the fourth failure of a Seattle school levy and bond campaign, due to a requirement that such measures pass by a 60 percent margin. The following year, when a levy failed with 58 percent of the vote, Macfarlane says, “I was seeing red. I ripped the hose off at the gas station and drove to the [Schools First] campaign office,” she recalls. She took leave from her job to help rerun the levy campaign, and has worked on every levy campaign since. By 2000, she and Nick Hanauer founded the League of Education Voters (LEV).
Why she’s on the list: Macfarlane, along with her LEV colleagues and the powerful state teachers union, helped pass House Joint Resolution 4204, the constitutional amendment that enables school levies to pass with a simple majority. (Bonds still require a 60 percent margin.) After years of lobbying, HJR 4204 squeaked through Olympia with the required two-thirds majority in both chambers. The legislation was ratified by voters last November, but again, just by a hair. It relied on absentee ballots to get it over the top. “We won in overtime,” says Macfarlane.
Biggest influence: Her days in the late 1970s when she was a VISTA volunteer at a maximum-security juvenile correctional facility in South Carolina. “I know what happens to kids when they don’t get opportunities,” she says. Steve Hansen
Click here to read the article.
