Seattle Moves Fast and Furious to Close Budget Gap

There's a couple of great articles up at The Seattle Times' website. The first that caught my eye was on the costs of providing transportation and special ed in a district the size of Seattle. The transportation costs ($10 million) are a function of the school choice movement in Seattle, while the special ed expenses are a result of Seattle being the big city. They have special programs for autistic kids and the deaf that other towns in Washington don't, which I would think would account for their higher costs.

The School Board also voted to close 7 schools, with a chance that more may need to go in the future. They've been struggling with declining enrollment for a while, and I give their administrative staff a lot of credit for finally being able to get school closures through. It's the right thing to do. Painful and heartbreaking, but the right thing.