I Read WE So You Don’t Have To!

The highlights from this month’s edition of WE Magazine, from the WEA:

• Charles Hasse leads off by taking some shots at Terry Bergeson, which is either King Kong vs. Godzilla or Dr. Doom vs. Magneto, depending on your point of view.
  
  
• “A voter poll last month found that just 34 percent feel she is doing a good job,” sez Charles. I would be interested to know what the questions bracketing that particular question were, because I’d be awfully surprised if 34% of the voters in Washington could even tell you who Terry Bergeson is.
  
  
• His next quibble with Terry: “She has issued no comprehensive report regarding adequate school funding in the decade she has served.” OK, but the closest we have right now is Washington Learns, which has Bergeson’s fingerprints all over it. Further, it’s telling that neither the WEA nor the group suing the state for increased funding has offered an adequacy number.
  
  
• When that number comes out, I will be taking wagers as to whether it is over or under the cost to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct. Personally, I’d bet the over.
  
  
• “She measured inflation not with the CPI, but with the Implicit Price Deflator, an index specially designed to underestimate price increases.” I have no commentary on that; I just like the phrase “implicit price deflator.”
  
  
• Newly elected state senator Chris Marr is pictured in this issue, which I believe is the second consecutive he’s been in. The WEA in general and the Eastern Council in particular worked like demons to get him elected, and if I’d lived in his district I would have voted for him. He seems like a real dynamic guy.
  
  
• 407 more teachers have become National Board Certified. If only it made a difference.
  
  
• In an article about the union dues case that was recently argued before the Supreme Court (ably covered by Jim over at 5/17) it’s pointed out that even if the Court rules against the WEA it means that it will be sent back to the lower court to resolve the “narrower technical issues.” It’s an interesting question: even if the WEA loses, what will the practical effect be?
  
  
• The Network for Excellence in Washington Schools is the group that filed the lawsuit earlier this month, and they have a website.
  
  
• A new round of grant applications is open at the NEA Foundation’s website. Go get yourself some money!
  
  
• Finally, the Rule of 85 is being pushed in the legislature via HB 1199. Were that to become the law I could get my full retirement at age 54. Wonderful theory, but I’m on Plan 3, so that’s not bloody likely.