Fixing through legislation . . .

As expected, two new bills were introduced this past week to "fix" public education in our state.  One of the bills would allow for charter schools, something that I blogged about here.  I agree with Scott's comment to that post that this short session is not the place or time for this debate.  The budget issues that they face, in my mind, are enough.  They don't other major issues to consume their time.  When you read the comments of legislators in the media our system needs fixing and they believe that this is one of the components to the fix.  They also use the argument that charters are in most other states.  Part of the leverage for this move is the growing achievement gap in our state as shared by one of the sponsors Rep. Pettigrew in this LEV post.

“It’s time to confront the fact that our school system is failing the same set of students, year after year,” said Pettigrew, the Majority Caucus Chair in the House. “Traditional efforts over past decades have failed to close the achievement gap, and today we have the opportunity to lay the foundation for a new approach. This bill will provide a much-needed alternative for students who wouldn’t otherwise have one, without compromising the effectiveness of our public school system.”


Other information can be found in this Education Week and Olympian articles.  Even though the data shows mixed results for charters, some legislators see this as a key component of education reform missing in our state.

Asked why lawmakers were pursuing legislation instead of again asking voters to approve charters, Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, said he is not willing to risk defeat.


Asked why lawmakers were pursuing legislation instead of again asking voters to approve charters, Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, said he is not willing to risk defeat.



"I don’t think education is something you take a gamble with,” said Tom, a co-sponsor of the bills. “It’s high time that we take care of that here in Olympia.”

The second bill is designed to "strengthen" the teacher evaluation system something that I will save for a later post.