Steve Litzow: Tool of the Ed Reformers

Senate Bill 5328, the one that would give most every public school a grade?

It's copied pretty much whole cloth from this legislation in Florida.

And similar wording also shows up in this bill from New York State.

For example, this wording from 5238 (page 2 line 7):

(b) An alternative school may choose to receive a school or a school improvement rating

(ibid, by the way--it's an absolutely terrible cut and paste job)

 ....look like this in the Florida legislation:

2.  An alternative school may choose to receive a school grade under this section or a school improvement rating under s. 1008.341. 

 ....and makes an awful lot more sense, given that there really isn't a context for the idea of a "school improvement rating" for Washington State schools.  My guess is that when Senator Litzow had the bill written for him, he didn't bother to make sure it was really written to match what we do here.

One can't help but detect the hand of ALEC in all this.

Read more here, if any.

I Kinda Suspected

From the August 1st edition of The Nation Magazine, in an article titled Starving Public Schools:

ALEC's real motivation for dismantling the public education system is ideological--creating a system where schools do not provide for everyone--and profit-driven. The corporate members on its education task force include the Friedman Foundation, Goldwater Institute, Washington Policy Center, National Association of Charter School Authorizers and corporations providing education services, such as Sylvan Learning and the Connections Academy.

Liv's got a posse, and they're both well funded and in the game for their own purposes.

Read more here, if any.