Section » Education
Is It Time to Reconsider Charter Schools?
The research on charter schools is becoming more rigorous and it says that charter schools work for poor kids. Charter schools are public schools that are not run by public school districts. Instead they are run by nonprofits, by businesses, or by religious organizations. They have more flexibility than traditional public schools as to how they operate
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Gift Horse, Trojan Horse, or Windfall? Feds Giving New Grants to State’s Lowest-Performing Schools
Any day now, the state of Washington will announce a list of K-12 schools that are eligible for federal grants this year. The grants are sizable – up to $2 million per school annually, renewable for the next three years. Funded mostly with federal stimulus money, these grants are meant to help these
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Raj Manhas Surveys “Broken” System of School Funding & Problems Money Can’t Solve
We haven’t called them all to verify, but we could have sworn we heard the superintendents of the 294 public school districts in the state sigh a collective “amen” upon hearing the news of that ruling handed down
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Who pays for public schools? We do — again, and again
As the state wrangles with the definition of “basic education” and its constitutional obligation to amply fund the public schools, activists concern themselves with the more immediate need to fund school programs left to the local taxpayers. The corner of Martin Way and Marvin Road is the busiest
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State Lawmakers Want to rid schools of Gangs, But Will Their Proposals Hurt Kids More Than They Help?
In more and more parts of Washington state, big and small, schools are having to cope with gangs. “We have seen a tremendous increase in our gang activity” said Shelby Langdon of the Wahluke School District in Mattawa, a small town in Grant County. “We have students coming to us daily afraid to
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The Week in Preview: Education
Wow, this week is packed with education bills. This afternoon, Monday, January 25, a Senate committee will take public comments on a bill that would require performance audits for schools in which kids don’t do well academically. Sponsored by Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, at the request of Governor
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What is Basic Education?: Changing Definitions in One of the State’s Poorest Districts
IN ONE OF THE STATE’S POOREST PLACES, A PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT REFLECTS ON HIS CAREER. The Aberdeen area’s reputation as something of a Hardlucksville would seem at least somewhat warranted. They still cut down trees in the forests near here, but the logs that were once made into lumber and
A Slippery Slope
Is the state headed towards privatizing its public colleges? Washington state’s public universities could gain the power to control how much tuition they can charge students, under several bills being considered by lawmakers in Olympia. The power to set tuition rates has always resided with the state
Week in Preview: Education
by Margie Slovan Tomorrow begins week two of the Washington State Legislature’s 2010 session, and lawmakers will be tackling how to pay for early childhood education, how to keep gangs out of schools, whether to put advertising on school buses, how to teach kids math and science more effectively, and
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For Now, Education Escapes the Worst
By Margie Slovan Did you hear that big sigh of relief yesterday afternoon? Still reeling from last year’s budget cuts, Washington state’s embattled educators must have been holding their breath during Governor Chris Gregoire’s State of the State address yesterday. But yesterday, Gregoire called
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