Kelly Munn, Casual Stereotyper

From an email that I received a bit ago from the League of Education Voters, signed by their field director Kelly Munn:

We have to use every resource possible to give all of our kids the education and opportunities they deserve. High-performing public charter schools are helping these kids in 41 other states. Only Washington, Kentucky, Alabama and a handful of others don't give parents this valuable education option.

It's no accident that Ms. Munn chose those two states to compare Washington to, because she wants you to get a very specific image in your mind when she brings up Kentucky and Alabama:

Other states that don't have charter laws? North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Montana, Nebraska, and Maine. The two examples that Kelly went with are the only two states in the south that don't have charter school laws, and we can either attribute that to a 2-in-56 chance that she picked those two at random, or she picked those two purposefully to move a part of the LEV agenda forward because Lord knows we wouldn't want to be like those folks.

Read more here, if any.

A Quick Thought Upon Watching Several Episodes of Beyond Scared Straight

All those kids need is a Charter school, then everything will be OK!

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From the "We Shan't Overcome" Beat

"Sit-ins in state lawmakers’ offices, which activists had planned to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day and protest budget cuts, have been canceled because of the snowy, icy weather."

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Everything Comes From Somewhere

One of the dumber arguments that people try is the whole "Teachers unions are funded by taxpayer's dollars!" canard, which you can see on display here at Education Next.

Just don't do it.

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I'm Sure It's Just a Coincidence

A particular line from the charter schools bill that was introduced to the Washington State legislature yesterday, related to an extension of the time that it would take a charter to start serving students:

"The authorizer may grant or deny the extension depending on the school's circumstances."

From the charter school law in Maine:

The authorizer may grant or deny the extension depending on the particular public charter school's circumstances.

How about Montana?

The authorizer may grant or deny the extension depending on the particular school's circumstances.

Heading down south, to Alabama:

The authorizer may grant or deny the extension, depending on the particular circumstances of the charter school.

...and Mississippi:

The authorizer may grant or deny the extension depending on the school's circumstances.

When you hear folks like Rep. Anderson complaining about the powerful teacher's union just remember that it isn't a plucky group of passionate advocates that came out of nowhere on the other side; the movement in support of charters is quite well funded and organized nationally, and this fight in Washington is just another battle that they've already fought before.

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Mitt v. Newt

The humorous thing about Mitt saying that Newt "Can't take the heat" is that Mitt has sputtered pretty hard in the debates when he's actually been challenged head-on. Perry got under his skin a few weeks back, and Newt got him in the last one with the line about Ted Kennedy.

If Mitt Romney can't handle softball attacks from his fellow Republicans, how can anyone really think that he'll be able to handle Obama?

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Bad Trend is Bad

On Monday OSPI released their list of the 57 lowest performing schools in Washington State. Here's some of them, with a little demographic information from the state report card website thrown in:

Inchelium Elementary School: 77% Native American
Inchelium Middle School: 65.9% Native American
Wellpinit Elementary School: 93.8% Native American
Wellpinit Middle Schools: 93.1% Native American
Harrah Elementary School (Mount Adams SD): 57.8% Native American
Mount Adams Middle School: 58.5% Native American
White Swan High School (Mount Adams SD): 48.9% Native American
Nespelem Elementary: 98.7% Native American (as of 09-10; no demographic data for 10-11)
Oakville High School: 49.6% Native American
Tulalip Elementary (Marysville): 59% Native American
Taholah Elementary/Middle School: 69.1% Native American

That's 11 out of the 57 schools where either the majority of the students are Native American, or Native Americans are the largest demographic group in the school. If I wandered through the list again looking at schools that were majority Hispanic, I could probably pull that many schools or better.

I'd submit to you that shortening the school year and firing the teachers probably isn't going to eliminate generational poverty.

Read more here, if any.

Today's Fake News From Olympia, Holiday Edition

"I've never seen a tax cut put out a fire." -- Barney Frank, This Week With Christiane Amanpour, December 18th 2011

HEROIC TAX CUT TURNS AROUND LOW PERFORMING SCHOOL
Anthropomophized Reduction in Business and Occupation Tax Challenges Kids, Solves Poverty, Erases Achievement Gap

Giddy officials in the Spokane Public Schools announced today that HR509 Section 2148 Regarding Certain Deductions to Capital Investments, recently hired to teach math at Rogers High School as part of the School Improvement Grant process, had completely changed the lives of all the kids lucky enough to be in his/her class.

"We were a little reluctant, frankly, to hire a tax cut to teach, but by God it worked!" said Spokane Schools Superintendent Nancy Stowell. "I look forward to many more tax cuts coming in and making all our schools better, forever."

Future moves suggested by Stowell include having a funding cut restore the art program, and starving the beast to make the school lunch program run in the black.

UNION HATING DEMOCRATS RUSH TO DEFEND THEIR VACATION TIME

With their traditional 3 week Christmas vacation being threatened by Governor Gregoire's special session, a long series of Senate Democrats with absolutely no sense of irony or labor history took to the floor to complain.

"We have a God given right to our vacation time!" thundered Senator Rodney Tom (D-Medina). "The very idea of having to work on a holiday is inhumane, and I am clearly the first person to ever think that!"

"The Gentleman from Medina is correct!" shouted an approving Steve Hobbs. "Not only is this unpaid overtime during what historically would be a break, but I submit to you all--has any worker in history ever been asked to put in so much time during the Holiday season for so little recompense?"

Happily, the electrical supply for all of Snohomish County will now be provided by attaching generators to the bodies of those killed in the Everett Massacre as they roll over in their graves.

RYAN'S POPULARITY IN WEA REACHES AMAZING NEW HEIGHTS
Sets a New Personal Best By Going Three Days Without Being Offensive, Condescending Prick

NOBODY BOTHERS TO TELL PAM ROACH THAT LEGISLATURE ADJOURNED
Confused Senator Only One to Show Up For Cancelled Committee Hearing

"I...I guess I kind of figured that Joe (Zarelli) or Mike (Hewitt) would tell her," said Senator Dan Swecker of Rochester. "I mean, things can kind of get by Pam sometimes, but we were all packing our boxes and talking about driving home...it was sort of understood, right?"

Members of the Olympia Press Corp later found Senator Roach sitting alone in a hearing room in the Cherburg Building holding a passionate debate with herself about the rights of adoptive and foster parents.

TEACHERS ANNOUNCE NEW FOUR TIER RATING SYSTEM FOR GOVERNOR GREGOIRE
"It will be clear. Oh yes, it will be clear," say Enthused Educators

A committee of Washington State teachers today rolled out a new 4 tier evaluation system for Governor Gregoire, a logical accompaniment to the Governor's proposal for teachers.

"We embrace what the Governor is proposing for us, and we hope that she'll feel the same way about what we propose for her," said Joseph Hill, a 3rd grade teacher in the Kent School District. "The purpose of the evaluation system is to improve governing. That's the focus of the evaluation system."

The four proposed ratings for the Governor run the gamut from a high of "Hasn't actively screwed up the state today" down to the lowest rating, "Couldn't find her ass with both hands and a map."

"Currently we've got the Governor at our second lowest rating, "Mike Lowry with TBI". Hopefully, these rigorous new measures will help her improve on up to "Comparisons to Bill Plummer coaching the Mariners are mostly unfair."

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Trent England Said Something Silly Again

Emphasis his:

I remember, as a kid, looking with my dad at a new school being built in our town. My dad knows construction; that's what he does. And he would point out the different components of the new building--the windows, the roofing, the glass blocks--that were the absolute most expensive materials available.

There are large school construction projects going on all around me, and this notion that we're going to the taxpayers and gouging them for Taj Maschools is silly on the face of it. There are committees made of people in the community, an elected school board to oversee the project, and construction bonds still have to pass with a 60% supermajority to become a reality. If you're looking for ways to save money, you're looking in the wrong place.

Read more here, if any.