An about face . . .

On Monday at the Washington Policy Center, Liz Finne did a blog post about testimony that Dr. Roza of the U.W. made last week to the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.  The title tells it all.

More money doesn't help school children, says UW professor

In the post Finne quoted Roza as follows.

‘And what you can see when you look at the relationship between spending and outcomes for our state is very little relationship, right?' Roza told lawmakers. In other words, more money doesn’t necessarily translate into better student performance."

I chose not to share the post until yesterday's post by Finne with the following title.

Dr. Roza says more money can help schools, but need to spend it smarter

It seems that Dr. Roza read the post and wanted to set the record straight.

Having just read this blog's coverage of my testimony to the Senate K12 committee last week, I feel the description mischaracterized my key message on school finance in Washington state. Liv Finne has given me the chance to post this clarification on her blog. The data chart on the poor relationship between spending and outcomes was evidence on the need to think differently about how to structure education funding going forward in order to get the best outcome for our students. Given the landmark McCleary decision, the state now has the opportunity to rethink how new funds will be applied in the coming years in the state's schools. In my testimony, which you can watch here, you'll see that I challenge the committee to seek a finance formula that builds on the many strong results already evident in parts of our system, and that lays the foundation for better linkages between spending and outcomes now and in the years to come.

So, there are good things happening in some Washington schools that we should be learning from and replicating.  Once again, it is time for implementing what we know is working and for stability, not new reforms and uncertainty as some are now calling touting.