Ross Hunter

Author: Ross

  • Suing schools when kids can’t read?

    Suing schools when kids can’t read?

    Interesting piece in the Seattle Times that questions if suing schools when students can’t read will work. My guess is no, it will not. Suing schools when kids can’t read?. The law that defines basic education requires that schools provide a reasonable opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed, but does not…

  • Resisting the Urge to Judge the Affordable Care Act

    http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Blog/2013/Dec/Resisting-the-Rush-to-Judge-the-Affordable-Care-Act.aspx A super-interesting (and brief) overview of how all the moving parts of the ACA have affected us, including the bad (website rollout) with the good (additional coverage, bending cost curve, rebates for excessive adminstrative spending, etc.)

  • Transportation

    Transportation

    I made some remarks at the Bellevue Rotary yesterday that seem to have been misinterpreted by some people, so I’m clarifying: Passing a transportation package this session is incredibly important for the Puget Sound region. I support a well-designed package. Starting in January King County Metro will start reducing service to make up for an…

  • Pay It Forward

    Recently a number of people have written to me about the “Pay it Forward” concept for funding higher education in Washington. The basic idea as described on the Economic Opportunity Institute website: (www.eoionline.org) Pay It Forward: A Debt-Free Degree  Students attend college with no upfront tuition or fees. Instead, students contribute a small, fixed-percentage of their…

  • Early Learning

    I visited a family child care provider in Bellevue last week. I’ve been working with Representative Ruth Kagi on trying to figure out how to improve both the reach and quality of our early learning system for at risk kids, and seeing how stuff works in person is pretty valuable. This wasn’t a facility for…

  • Boeing, Special Sessions, Tax Policy, and Transportation

    I’m in Olympia today at the behest of Governor Inslee. He called us in to, in his words: “I am asking lawmakers to pass a package of legislation that will guarantee that the Boeing 777X and its carbon fiber wing are built in Washington state,” Inslee said at a press conference today where he was…

  • Visiting Prisons

    Visiting Prisons

    I’ve been trying to visit everywhere we spend a billion dollars or more per biennium, and the prison system definitely makes the list. This month I got a chance to visit McNeil Island, a very creepy place. We have a treatment facility on the island for dangerous sex predators, and a former prison. We closed…

  • I-90 tolling proposal public input opportunity

    I received the following memo from WSDOT this week. We are entering the phase of finalizing the funding plan for the Western landing for 520. One of the options is tolling I-90 to pay for the remaining $1.4 billion in work to be done. We currently have enough money in the budget to connect the…

  • Get ready for westbound SR 520 closures on Thursday nights

    Useful info from WSDOT. Construction closures are aggravating, but getting the bridge done more quickly saves money and gets the whole project done faster. Construction of the new West Connection Bridge is in full swing so please plan ahead for weekly closures of westbound SR 520. Crews will close all westbound lanes from 92nd Avenue…

  • Cool data about net income migration

    This is an interesting view of how income has migrated in the last decade – lots of high wage people moving to Washington state. The rankings are aggregate,  so it might be interesting to see what the per-capita impact of this would be. The impact of $7.88 billion on 7 million people in Washington is…