Friends, my apologies: The week 6 legislative wrap-up and week 7 preview was one of the casualties of my having fallen down on the job – literally. But I am back and all is well because I have a cast on and the snow is finally beginning to melt down here in ‘SnOly’. Week 7 [...]
Rally to support teachers and public service employees in Wisconsin
February 28, 2011 By
You don’t have to be a member of a union to support the rights of public sector employees to collectively bargain. But you do have to dress warmly. On one of the coldest days of the year, several thousand people came to Olympia on Saturday for a noon rally to demonstrate their solidarity with teachers [...]
Congrats to our Wendy Kopp book winners…
February 28, 2011 By
The LEV accountants (yeah, we watched the Oscars too) have randomly selected 10 lucky winners to received a copy of Wendy Kopp’s new book “A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn’t in Providing an Excellent Education for All.” Congrats to these folks, who will need to pick up their books at Wednesday’s [...]
Trying something different
February 28, 2011 By
The Great Schools bill (HB1609) caused quite a stir. To community members it seemed obvious, a slam dunk. Mostly I heard questions about why we hadn’t changed this before. But for the teaching community, it was an outrage – it was impossible – it was union busting. Two really different perspectives, and the perspectives weren’t [...]
Census shows big changes for schools in South King County
February 25, 2011 By
The latest 2010 Census numbers show a large population shift happening in South King County. More people of color are moving to cities south of Seattle, increasing the number of people belonging to more than one race by 66 percent. The Tukwila School District is now the most diverse school district in the country according [...]
Korsmo’s education news roundup for Feb. 25th
February 25, 2011 By
Holy Snowpocalypse, Batman! Love the Northwest’s panic over all things snowflake. Bread lines like old eastern Europe. Nice. The Backyard: This week in Olympia, hearings were held, votes were taken, bills committed suicide while others were put to sleep. Policy bills of note still moving forward at this point, WaKids, (HB1510/5427), delays to requiring math [...]
Budget cuts could threaten higher education quality
February 25, 2011 By
University and college presidents are warning state lawmakers that budget cuts could threaten the quality of Washington’s higher education system. State lawmakers are faced with cutting more than $4 billion from the next two-year budget. To balance the budget, lawmakers are now considering cuts to higher education greater than the $600 million previously proposed. Read [...]
Ask our legislators: Do you represent me?
February 24, 2011 By
Are our schools really great? For your children? For all children? Some of our legislators think that. Could be that’s why there is very little change in education, and why education is continuing to be cut year after year? Take a look below at what one legislator said about education, and then send our decision [...]
A Response to Senator McAuliffe
February 23, 2011 By
This post was written by Amber Banks, a doctoral student in Education Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington. One year ago, I gave up a decade’s worth of work as a teacher to pursue a career in education policy because I was tired of wondering who was responsible for designing the ineffective [...]
Notes from the Ethnic Education Summit
February 23, 2011 By
The Washington State Commission on African American Affairs hosted its second annual Ethnic Education Summit in Olympia on Monday. Executive Director Roz Jenkins designed the program to take our big, multi-ethnic audience on a five-hour journey to learn, explore and get fired up to find solutions to address the growing, yes growing opportunity and achievement [...]
