George Scarola's blog

It was standing room only at Tuesday's meeting of the Basic Education Finance Task Force. As the Task Force bears down on the work of designing a better, more ample funding plan for schools, the room is filling with advocates, educators, print reporters and TVW. Soon we're going to need a bigger room.

Monday's Basic Education Finance Task Force meeting focused entirely on alternative pay systems for teachers. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), the public agency charged by the Legislature with staffing the Task Force, invited half a dozen of the most informed folks from Washington and around the country to address the committee.

Long-time school advocates watching the Basic Education Finance Task Force feel like Charlie Brown.  We're pretty sure Lucy will snatch the football away at the last minute, but we want to kick that football so hard and so far, we're willing to try again at the risk of making fools of ourselves.  Me, I'm betting this Task Force will be different, and that come December, it will propose a major overhaul of the finance system.