Students descend on Oly
Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by John.
John, a senior at Skyline High School in Sammamish
On Monday, LEV took a whole busload of students from around the state down to our state’s capital for a crash course in education advocacy.
Aside from free t-shirts and pizza (a good thing on any day), we also had the opportunity to get together with other students from their legislative districts and brainstorm some message points to deliver to our legislators. We even took part in the gargantuan Rally for Our Future on the steps of the Capitol building, along with 4,000 other like-minded students and citizens, and heard the personal stories of people from all over the state who demonstrated the need for new revenue and the ramifications of cutting funding for education and human services.
Maria and Jesus, who attend Health Sciences and Human Services High School in White Center, rallied to protect funding for kids, schools and human services.
The day culminated in an EPIC scavenger hunt around the capitol, where the student-advocates delivered their notes to their legislators, busted out dance moves on the floor of the rotunda in the Legislative Building, and had the opportunity to sit in on the debates on the House and Senate floors.
Parents brought their kids to Olympia to remind legislators who are impacted by state budget cuts.
It was pretty incredible to be able to see some of the inner cogs and gears of our government (supposedly) working hard on…something. It was also a pretty venue for students to express their opinions on the issues.
Jesus Robles, a junior at Health Sciences and Human Services High School in White Center, was one of a handful of students who stated their beef directly in a video testimony: “My favorite part was being interviewed over the issues in my school and sending the letters to the representatives and senators,” he says.
All in all, LEV gave over 40 students the opportunity to take a direct role in their government and gain some experience in working directly with their representatives.
“It was really exciting to express our concerns to the people who are making the decisions,” says Bill Dow, a freshman at the University of Washington, who had the opportunity to sit down with an aide from his state Senator’s office. He adds, “And I want to get marble installed in my dorm room.” (Marble is a pretty constant feature at the capitol-and yes, that includes the bathrooms.)
Experiences like this demonstrate the ease with which concerned students and constituents can see first-hand how their state is being governed, and convey their concerns to their representatives. It was a first time for me, and I was amazed at how we could simply walk into the offices of our representatives and senators and deliver them a note with our views, or pull them out of the chamber to talk with them directly. I mean, how cool is that?!
The answer, of course, is very, very cool.
We left Olympia with a better understanding of how our state is governed and how easy it is to convey our concerns to our elected officials.
Continue Reading
Capitol Hill Conquered!
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by John.
LEV’s Intrepid Intern Army rocked the Capitol Hill Block Party over the weekend. We collected hundreds of signatures for the Student Bill of Rights, and had a blast while doing so!
Check out our Flickr account to see more!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/educationvoters/
As we work up to our official release of the Student Bill of Rights, we will be going to many more of these events. We hope you will come and join us and be a part of the fun!
Maggie and Xuan manning the booth.
Continue Reading
Apply for a Position on the Washington State Board of Education!
Posted on 21. Jul, 2009 by John.
Do you have extensive experience with education? Do you want to affect change at a higher level? If you think you have what it takes, apply for the vacant position on the State Board of Education (SBE)! According to the SBE website, an appointed board member must have the following qualifications:
1. Demonstrated interest in public schools and are supportive of educational improvement.
2. A positive record of service.
3. Capable and willing to devote the time necessary to meet the responsibilities of the board.
The applications period closes on August 19. There is more general information on the SBE here, and the application and application information are located here and here, respectively.
We need a strong, dedicated Board to help fix education in Washington State. Apply now, and you can help make that happen!
Continue Reading
A Spot of Blue Sky…
Posted on 09. Jul, 2009 by John.
As I leap—unprotected and unprepared—into the world of college applications, I keep catching hints from previous survivors of the process about the dreaded FAFSA form, otherwise known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. I hear it’s not a lot of fun.
Fortunately, Arne Duncan is here to help:
“Education Secretary Arne Duncan is expected to announce today [June 24th] an effort to streamline the complicated process of applying for federal financial aid for college.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which includes more than 100 questions about income and assets, is so difficult that some parents pay private companies to fill it out for them or just give up. By Education Department estimates, about 1.5 million students would probably be eligible for Pell grants — which are for low-income families — but do not apply.
The federal government collects much of the same information on tax forms. In a pilot program that begins in January, students who apply for aid for the spring semester will be able to get their tax data from the Internal Revenue Service online so they can more easily complete the application. That option eventually may be expanded to all students.”
Unfortunately, I will be on my own this summer because this streamlining first applies to students applying in the spring. In future years, hopefully it won’t be so difficult to fill out. The article also talks about future efforts to cut out unnecessary questions and qualifications, although the article doesn’t specify exactly what would be removed. Additionally, these larger changes would require congressional approval. Darn.
Yet, it is important to note that this is a spot of blue sky for higher education in the midst of so much grey. Yes, our recession has already caused some colleges and universities to reduce socioeconomic diversity in order to afford financial aid, as was mentioned in a previous post. But here, the federal government is taking steps to increase college accessibility by streamlining one of the processes most limiting to admission in post-secondary education—paying for it! It is nice to see not only Secretary Duncan, but also the general government noticing and substantively working on the problems associated with higher education. This is an encouraging step in the right direction.
Now if only Seattle weather would take its cues from Arne Duncan… We could use a spot of blue sky.
Continue Reading
Disillusionment, Anyone?
Posted on 02. Jul, 2009 by John.
Hello LEV blog readers, my name is John, and I’m a summer LEV intern. While my weekly topics may vary slightly, as a rising senior in high school I’d like to focus on my experiences applying to and selecting a college.
College has always been, for me at least, the gateway to adulthood—both developmentally and temperamentally. We not only learn to live on our own, but also to discuss and formulate multifaceted ideas on the subject of our choosing. This is something that I consider an important adult capability. It also holds the allure of being an opportunity to learn and grow free of juvenile restraints—like parents and curfews.
This is not true for every kid. While it may be my choice to go to college, this is not in any way the necessary or correct path for everyone.
But is believing all that crazy hoohah naïve of me? Are those ideas utopian and unrealistic?
Obviously, not everyone who wants to go to college can. It is not a perfect system, and the worst part of that system, the financial part, is certainly not helped by our recession. Nevertheless, articles like this one I found in the New York Times the other day are disturbing, to say the least:
“PORTLAND, Ore. - The admissions team at Reed College, known for its free-spirited students, learned in March that the prospective freshman class it had so carefully composed after weeks of reviewing essays, scores and recommendations was unworkable.
Money was the problem. Too many of the students needed financial aid, and the college did not have enough. So the director of financial aid gave the team another task: drop more than 100 needy students before sending out acceptances, and substitute those who could pay full freight.”
Admissions, already a scary topic for prospective students, just got a little scarier. The nightmares that fill highschoolers’ heads during the fall of their senior year just got a little clearer in detail and subject matter. What makes it worse is realizing the solution is complicated. For a college like Reed, which promises to meet all of admitted students’ demonstrated need, the choices are few. They can either not meet their promise and risk tarnishing the school’s reputation and allure, or do what they did here. Of course, they pretty much tarnished themselves all over again now that we know what happened.
One commentator hit it right on:
“While I appreciate the transparency offered by Reed’s disclosure, I have to imagine that this happens behind closed doors at a number of institutions. The implication that the wealthy face a less strident admissions process to some of our best schools disturbs me. It seems like we are moving towards a society where class and economic status matter more than ever.”
It is certainly difficult for me to reconcile my childhood image of college with the one described here. It raises a number of questions: Did they select the best option possible? Kids are still being educated, and the institution, which is by all accounts a good one, can stay afloat. Should they have opted to break the college’s promise of meeting all of students’ needs instead? Should transparency like this be mandatory for college admissions? What about all of the universities that say they are “need-blind”?
Every college tells you something different, and they can spin it however they need to, as evidenced by this response to the article, published a few days later, where the college President makes it sound like everything is just fine. While I think this independence and choice of colleges is one of the highlights of our higher education system, another highlight is diversity and equal opportunity. The college experience is in many ways a symbol of the United States: people can and do come from all backgrounds and cultures to study and learn. I personally feel that my education wouldn’t be complete without everyone’s voice at the table.
I’m still excited about the application process. But I don’t see the problem that Reed had as being an isolated case.
