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McCleary, the Court and Funding Compensation
Chris Vance has a lot to say in this article on Crosscut that I agree with, but more that I don’t. He is right that the Legislature didn’t address the compensation element and still needs to. I expect the court to have something to say on this soon. However, he and Superintendent Dorn remain confused about…
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Legislature Still has Work to Do
You may have read in the press that the Legislature got a budget done by midnight on June 30th, allowing the state to continue providing unemployment assistance, Medicaid, childcare, public schools, college classes, and all of the other things that we have decided to do collectively. I am frustrated that we were unable to come…
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(Almost) Post-Session Advice
You’ll start getting some (almost) post-session notes from me now that I have time to digest what happened and what still needs to be finished. I have not had time recently to keep up with posting the advice cards I got from kids at Somerset Elementary in Bellevue so I’ll release several as catch-up. I…
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WSDOT: Public Tours of the New 520 Bridge – Register Today!
[Update 7/13/15] The text below is from WSDOT, not from me. They are offering this tour. It’s probably full by now anyway. They may offer more, so it’s worth watching the space if you are interested. Registration opens today for next public tour of the new SR 520 floating bridge Are you curious about complex…
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School Levy and Compensation Reform
Two recent articles in the Seattle Times point out one of the remaining key elements of resolving the McCleary “problem”, and it’s a BIG element. Most estimates have the size of the problem at about $3,000,000,000 to $3,500,000,000 ($3 – $3.5 billion) a biennium. Wildly varying teacher salaries part of state budget debate This article describes the…
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School District Compensation and Levy Reform
Last week the Appropriations committee held a hearing on the second half of the McCleary decision; the requirement that the state fund adequate compensation, not local taxpayers. The hearing took over 3 hours and is super-interesting. You can watch it on TVW here. This sounds terrifyingly dull, but it wasn’t. Anytime you talk about property…
