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Teen Births Decline!
I got email from one of our regular contributors yesterday that wanted us to follow Colorado’s example in reducing teenage births in Washington. Since 2008 teenage births (to women age 15-19) have declined almost 40% in Colorado, an amazing statistic. The website this is from (www.popconnect.org) claims this has saved Colorado $41 million in that…
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No More Boarding the Mentally Ill in Emergency Rooms
The WA State Supreme Court released a decision this morning on psychiatric boarding in hospitals that basically prohibits the state from doing this. Judge Gonzales’ summary is quite pithy. GONZALEZ, I.-Washington State’s involuntary treatment act (ITA), chapter 71.05 RCW, authorizes counties to briefly detain those who, “as the result of a mental disorder,” present an imminent…
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Superintendent Dorn to Policy Center: “You’re Wrong”
Stop Confusing “Education Reform” With “Funding Reform” The Legislature defined basic education. The Court said, Fund it. OLYMPIA (March 28, 2014) — Unfortunately, it is once again necessary to respond to Ms. Liv Finne of the Washington Policy Center about the meaning of the Supreme Court’s McCleary v. State of Washington decision. Ms. Finne continues…
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Peter Callaghan: Education bill’s unheralded details will need attention | Peter Callaghan | The News Tribune
Peter Callaghan: Education bill’s unheralded details will need attention | Peter Callaghan | The News Tribune. Peter does a good job here exposing some of the hard work remaining in figuring out school funding details for 2015. He drills into a number of key issues: Local school levies being used for compensation. This is an…
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Follow-up from Telephone Town Hall – Foster Care and 520 Bridge Schedule
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2014 Supplemental Budget
The House and Senate introduced budgets about two weeks ago that were similar in some ways, but radically different in others. We negotiated and came to a bipartisan solution that pleases no one except our families who get us back home again. The votes were lopsided in favor – 85-13 in the House and 48-1…
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Use of “economic models” to mislead the public
The Washington Policy Center, a right-leaning think tank, published a report today with a terrifying title: “Economic model shows Superintendent Dorn’s proposed tax increases would cost 18,500 jobs“. This is “truthy”, AN economic model did show this. Of course, THIS economic model ALWAYS shows job losses from proposed public policy proposals. Economic model shows Superintendent…
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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…
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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…
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Boeing, Special Sessions, Tax Policy, and Transportation