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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Public Education in 2015-2016 - What Will Happen?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Public Education in 2015-2016 - What Will Happen?:

Public Education in 2015-2016 - What Will Happen?






I believe that this year is to be a pivotal one in public education - for our district, our state and nationally.
I'll go in reverse order. 

Nationally, that issue of opting out over Common Core testing/overtesting is not going away.  No amount about saber-rattling, shaming or finger-wagging is going to change that. 

In 2016 we will elect a new president and I can only say if you believe in "choice" via charters and voucher, vote Republican.  Because that is exactlywhat will happen.  There is not a single Republican I would trust on public education issues (and that's a sad thing to say given how many of them there are).  Trump is the only one with no clear views but I'm thinking the first thing he would do for public education is to make mandatory citizenship reviews of every single student in public schools a reality. 

But with a Republican president, along with vouchers and massive charterization of public schools,  we would probably see a big pullback on federal reach into public education.  Common Core might be weakened by this move.  

But Clinton, Sanders and the other Dems are not-so-stellar either on public education issues so I'm (again) likely to be disappointed for public education, no matter who wins.

For Washington State, we will go into Jan. 2016 seeing the Legislature continue to tie itself into knots over school funding and ignoring I-1351 about class size.  It's going to take some real leadership and public will to create a change that will mean a fundamental change in how we fund our STATE andNot just public education.  I said this to the Governor but I'm not sure he's the 
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Public Education in 2015-2016 - What Will Happen?: