Dear Friends,
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day. Throughout Washington, there are great celebrations occurring to
mark the holiday bearing his name. The E-Wire is particularly partial to
the events in Tacoma which usually has a great collection of contemporary talent
and, when I am not in legislative session, I can be found there. Today,
however, the legislature is in session and Director Krainick and I are meeting
with legislators and attending the public hearing on behalf of paraeducator
development. The discussion should be fascinating since it is a widely
unknown fact that in Washington State, paraeducators account for over 50% of
the face time for ELL and Special Ed Students. On another front, the
holiday means student lobbyists from High Schools and Colleges are populating
the halls, talking to legislators on issues ranging from access to education to
bills supported by Planned Parenthood. Check back later today for a
report on the hearing.
Legislators were quite busy last
week – the lobbyist refrain in the corridors of the Capitol reflected “this
session was far more intense the first wee than last session. The E-Wire
remembers hearing that very same exclamation the previous session, and the one
before that, and the….. Still, the volume of education related and whole
child bills that were introduced literally shut down this office as we
scrambled to review bills for the Regional Legislative Chairs to submit for
board endorsement this weekend. So, on behalf of the E-Wire, I apologize
for going dark on Thursday and Friday. Judging from today’s entries,
things are slowing down enough to prevent that from happening again this cycle.
Two big education related bills
cleared the house last week. The first was the DREAM Act which flew out
of the House on the first day of legislative session with a commanding
bipartisan majority. The second one, HB 1043, would revoke differential
tuition setting authority currently held by state universities and
colleges. Our state system received the ability a few years ago to charge
higher rates for expensive science and mathematics programs for the
baccalaureate degrees. This has proven to be a mistake and has had a
negative effect in attracting college bound Washingtonians from pursuing STEM
degrees which we desperately need in our economy. The bill passed the
House by a wide margin yet again, and has been referred to Higher Education in
the Senate. No word if it has been scheduled for a hearing.
Sometime in the next day or so,
the E-Wire will have a rundown of Education and Whole Child Bills that are
currently introduced and pending in the legislature. But for now, catch
up time!
Columbian says yes to more money
for schools but no to COLA’s for teachers
Parenting Class in Seattle
discuss academics, cultural awareness and bullying
Fatality Reviews Legislation for
Child Care Facilities moves forward
Ross Hunter asks, “Can They Do
Better?”
Publicoa has a wrap up of the recent
T/PEP Senate Education Committee meeting – scroll to the bottom for
Senator Baumgardner’s response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on
McCleary
http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/fizz-for-jan-16-januarytricky-2014
Look here for Senator Padden’s response
Addressing the Health Care
Provider shortfall by expanding career paths for nurses
Eastside Catholic debates
continue
Senator McAuliffe begins the
discussion on class size reduction – House version likely to follow
Washington Post Blog comes out
with their “real ed reform” agenda
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/16/a-real-school-reform-agenda-for-2014/
NEA Rates members of congress
All 50 states utilize testing
for some form of accountability
Teach for America spinoff
“Leadership for Educational Equity” grows exponentially
Low Income Students still trail
in college enrollments
How to get kids excited about
reading
Not so bad –American textbooks
more rigorous than South Korea’s
The True Value of Higher
Education – and why we need to promote it
Hear former Supreme Court
Justice and State Senator Phil Talmadge speak out on McCleary
Enumclaw Schools face issues
with teens and Twitter
The High Tech of School Security
Monroe District keys up for
Common Core http://www.monroemonitor.com/2014/01/14/page-school-district-gears-common-core-standards/
and NEA gets squarely behind Common Core http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2014/01/nea_and_firm_unveil_curricula.html?intc=mvs
while Florida proposes changes http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/florida-makes-suggestion-for-changes-to-common-core/
A look at education in the
future
The E-Wire had fire drills while
kids today have lockdown drills
Litzow’s response to Supreme
Court response to McCleary
http://washingtonstatewire.com/blog/first-move-in-5-billion-k-12-funding-drama-litzow-proposes-talks-that-would-put-accent-on-reform/
and here’s Publicoa’s take http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/thursday-jolt-januaryk-12-2014
And Senator Litzow’s doubles
down on early learning opportunities
Senator Patty Murray has dreams
of her own
Communities can restrict
Marijuana Sales according to AG
And the Liquor Board’s
response http://www.bothell-reporter.com/news/240657871.html
More Bertha troubles – the
finger pointing starts and the question of “who pays” still hasn’t been
answered.
GMO Labeling loses at ballot
box, starts up again in the legislature
Representative introduces faith
healing bill geared to prevent parents from utilizing faith measures over
medical care for children
Eastern Washington School
Districts face overcrowding with different measures http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/opinion/editorials/school/article_a5c1372e-7f10-11e3-9188-0019bb2963f4.html
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