PubliCola - Latest Comments

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

Jeffsmith37 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:48:51 -0000

Wait a minute. Hanauer thinks McKenna is on the right track on education in our state. Does he know that McKenna is opposed to raising taxes? Does McKenna have some magic way to pay for our schools without new tax revenue?
Tell us what it is, Nick.
I know you're smart enough to know that we need to provide more funds for our schools. But I also know that you are not at the forefront on on raising taxes. Help us raise taxes and we'll give you the kind of school system you think we should have. And it will be a public school system with an education policy set by the public, as it should be. That should be our goal. Don't walk away from it.

Re: Seattle Times Opinion Page Weighs in On Hanauer Debate with Dems, Teachers’ Union

ivan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:45:24 -0000

What Lynne Varner thinks of education is not newsworthy, Josh. It's just the same old shit, again and again. Quit being the reformies' little pimp, will you? And don't tell me oh, we ran a letter from Mary Lindquist. Your biases are pretty damn transparent. Every time some reformie cuts a fart you treat it like it's news.

Re: Seattle Times Opinion Page Weighs in On Hanauer Debate with Dems, Teachers’ Union

Arthurofrhodes — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:45:05 -0000

"reform" of K-12 health benefits by imposing $45 million in new costs on taxpayers and adding 38 new employees to the state Health Care Authority is not "reform" at all, and certainly has nothing to do with K-12 education reform, but is included in Varner's piece because, I guess, no one at the Times can be bothered to read a fiscal note to do any real journalistic inquiry.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

Rustypelican — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:40:38 -0000

The schools are well-funded. Money has never made a difference in the quality of public school education. In fact, spending is often inversely correlated with performance in urban schools. If you want more money to make it into the classroom, start by trimming the administrative costs of the Seattle School District.

When liberals look at private schools, they see only class distinctions attributable to someone having an unfair advantage. But many middle-class parents make economic sacrifices to send their children to private schools, rather than sending them to the public school down the street. No amount of funding will solve the socio-economic causes of public school failure.

The bottom line is that a child with two supportive, educated parents with an IQ of 130 cannot be taught in the same room as a kid from a broken dysfunctional home with an IQ of 105. A system that pretends both of these kids are equal is doing a disservice to both of them. And we need to drop the bumper sticker logic that all kids should attend college. Unless we intend to become a nation of educated welfare recipients, we need trade schools and alternatives to the college track.

Private schools do a better job of educating students because they teach kids that are ready, willing and able to learn. A public school teacher must deal with vast disparities in ability, so naturally the problem kids drag down the mean. Why would any parent with an option choose to send their kid into a system like that?

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

John Bailo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:38:11 -0000

You have no answers so like the vacuous right-winger you are, you insult.

Oh, it's you again. So your job is to basically go around and "muddy the waters". You take a rational point, such as mine, and then act like "oh, yeah, I understand" and then you turn around like a crazy Scientologist and start hurling insults.

How long do you think it will be before Google doesn't ferret out your little "operation" ? Quite frankly, I'd be packing up the laptops and setting off the implosion devices in the bunker before it's too late.

Shoot -- it's too late, the satellite has you in its coordinates!

Re: New Poll Finds Inslee and McKenna Tied (and Support for Same-Sex Marriage)

Reality_Guy — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:32:53 -0000

At least Josh has the good sense to include the poll numbers.

The highlight of yesterday's PubliCola was Erica's copying of a KING-5 story (or Joel Connelly, depending on your POV) complete with an unchecked and erroneous citation. Rather than admit she didn't fact check her linked article, she then blames KING-5:

http://publicola.com/2012/02/2...

This post has been updated to correct an error in KING-5′s original report. That report said that McGinn was unpopular among younger voters; in fact, his approval rating among voters between 18 and 34 was 39 percent.

But remember, she's an "award winning journalist" and "dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news."

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

Rustypelican — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:22:45 -0000

The opinion of a self-interested union hack should receive no weight in any informed discussion. Union officers have an insurmountable conflict of interest when it comes to education policy.

The teachers unions have been the single biggest obstacle to change in our broken educational system. Any reform that fails to enhance the entrenched interests of the union are dead on arrival. The unions should be judged by the quality of their work product. By any objective measure, they have failed miserably. Yet that never stops them from asking voters to double down on their failure again and again.

Much of the problem is beyond the control of teachers as it involves the consequences of the welfare state (single female households, welfare, rotten neighborhoods, and no hope of escaping a life of government dependency). Yet the unions stand as defenders of the status quo out of sheer self-interest.

The fact that a Democrat--any Democrat--endorses McKenna's educational spending spree is all anyone needs to know about it. I attended McKenna's campaign kick-off fundraiser and had to hold my nose while I wrote him a check. (Inslee is bought and paid for by the unions and impresses me as being an idiot.)

McKenna obviously calculated that he could not get elected in this state unless he promised to increase spending on education. If spending was the solution, we would have the best public schools in the developed world, rather than the worst.

Re: Seattle Times Opinion Page Weighs in On Hanauer Debate with Dems, Teachers’ Union

Another Guest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:21:00 -0000

I support education reform that will actually improve our schools. Charter schools have not been shown to do so. So I do not support charter schools. It's very simple to me. That is why I don't understand the Pettigrew types who say "Well, we have these problems, we have to do something! Let's do charter schools!" No, let's do something that will actually help. Just doing whatever in hopes that it will help is a worse idea than doing something that we know will actually help.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

Sarajane Siegfriedt — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:10:05 -0000

Not unless the goat is your own. If by nonprofits, you mean 501(c)(3)s, the designation for charities, we give them a break in the tax code because they do good work for society, such as feeding and housing the homeless, tutoring kids, cleaning up Puget Sound. They do all these things much, much cheaper than the state can do them. This type of "outsourcing" has been going on for a long time. Most of our mental health care is provided by nonprofits, along with almost all of our newer low-income housing.

I keep hearing suggestions from conservatives that the state should get out of housing and feeding the homeless and "let the churches do it." The truth is, they do what they can, and the need is many orders of magnitude larger. So the churchestemples and social service agencies use their tax breaks to do good works on behalf of society as a whole. All nonprofits post their 990 tax returns online every year and are completely transparent about their community boards and management pay. If you don't like it, you can run for a board, or protest publicly, or challenge their IRS status.

Re: New Poll Finds Inslee and McKenna Tied (and Support for Same-Sex Marriage)

Rustypelican — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:05:18 -0000

The poll is meaningless unless the authors disclose the weight assigned when they adjusted for party ID. because the poll was conducted by Democrats, we should assume they overweighted Democrats. If the adjustment was made consistent with the exit interviewes from the 2008 election, they should have disclosed that fact. This smacks of push-polling.

Re: It Doesn’t Fit Into the Long-Term Future of Our State

jimu — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:56:16 -0000

Thank you for pointing out the gimmick that is in the Democratic proposal. From Gregoire wanting to cut education and put it up to a vote to this budget proposal that chooses to ignore it and hope it works out in the future, the Democrats don't seem to be making education a priority. The Republican budget, which has faults, makes education a priority.

A message to Ross Hunter, whom I normally support: Make education a priority in THIS BUDGET with no gimmicks. Don't push the tough decisions to the future, rather take the hit THIS biennium. This is leadership.

"I will act now. I will act now...Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed...This is the time. This is the place. I am the person. I will act now." ~Og Mandino

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

birchbay — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:56:04 -0000

You have no answers so like the vacuous right-winger you are, you insult. I'm laughing. That's what insults over intellect inspire: comic relief.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

John Bailo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:40:19 -0000

I am curious why added the SKC//Seattle observation or was it just another anti-democrat assault?

I would be happy to answer if you rephrase the question using the English language.

Re: KING 5 Poll: 50 Percent Disapprove of McGinn

Johns — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:39:35 -0000

Mmm...not exactly. Facebook and Google both have thriving offices in Seattle. Microsoft, on the other hand, does not.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

John Bailo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:39:28 -0000

You may now present data showing which Seattle public schools are considered the best in the nation.

Re: KING 5 Poll: 50 Percent Disapprove of McGinn

FrequentPoster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:35:27 -0000

Who are you and why are you impersonating me? Your comments make me sound like some sanctimonious, barbaric, irrational loser with nothing better to do than foment unrest in the comment threads of a liberal blog.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

birchbay — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:34:38 -0000

Haha. You almost had me. From the artilce:

Jay Mathews, a Washington Post reporter who compiles the list for
Newsweek, said in an e-mail that Seattle schools should have been
included. He said Garfield's numbers "failed to reach the web site
folks" at Newsweek.

Some schools, including Roosevelt and Ballard, did not return the
Newsweek form, possibly because it was screened out by spam filters,
Mathews said.

I guess Bellevue knows how to toot its own horn, huh?

On the Seattle side, it 's not what we say we do but what we do that matters. You still haven't answered the question about comparables. I don't think you have an answer, do you?

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

birchbay — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:28:16 -0000

You've made a nice pitch for Bellevue without adding much to the conversation. I guess there wasn't much there there in the first place. I am curious why added the SKC//Seattle observation or was it just another anti-democrat assault?

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

birchbay — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:05:16 -0000

Education: the fulcrum on which our democracy rests. Hanauer and his kind will continue to take our country the way of Africa, South America and the MIddle East. The Great American Experiment - the democracy in which The People are the government - will have failed. My parents experienced the Great Depression and FDR. I experienced Johnson's Great Society which allowed so many to gain so much. Those who come after me will experience the Reagan-Clinton-Bush II demolition of it all. Our children will have to start all over again. If that is even possible. And who did it to us? People like Hanauer. People who pretend to be liberal and supportive of social justice but are in fact still money counters who think a business degree makes one wise. I'd rather read Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn any day.

This is so important. I am fearful of the ignorance I see and read from people whose lives will be made much, much worse if they continue to support the McKennas of the world. I was done with him when he joined the healthcare lawsuit. Americans need healthcare.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

John Bailo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:51:23 -0000

Bellevue works. And it costs less.
Seattle doesn't. And it costs more.

Further analysis is needed to figure out why.

5 Bellevue high schools on Newsweek's top 100 list

For the second year in a row, all five of Bellevue's comprehensive high schools have made Newsweek magazine's list of the top 100 public high schools in the country.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...

Re: It Doesn’t Fit Into the Long-Term Future of Our State

overnighter — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:50:59 -0000

Legalizing pot will put few, if any, drug dealers out of business.

It will keep a lot of people (white and black) from being imprisoned for possession or distributing small amounts.

Re: KING 5 Poll: 50 Percent Disapprove of McGinn

FrequentPoster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:50:04 -0000

Being wrong has never stopped me from saying anything on this smugster-infested joke of a blog.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

birchbay — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:49:34 -0000

My right-winger references have been few and far between on this blog. Perhaps you are getting confused by so many who categorize you as such - probably because it's true. If you want to hear the label less, sound like one less.

Re: KING 5 Poll: 50 Percent Disapprove of McGinn

FrequentPoster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:48:51 -0000

I don't need to pay attention to anything you write, I just summarily dismiss it as being wrong. Don't try to play your shifty statistical sleight of hand on me, pal. You pathetic pollsters try to warp facts to your own ends.

Re: Democrat Hanauer: On Education, “McKenna Is On the Right Track, We Are Not.”

birchbay — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:47:48 -0000

Design, implementation and . . . population? Are you saying that South KC and Seattle have comparables in Bellevue? That is an important distinction. To say Bellevue is multi-diverse maybe more than Seattle? Then you say SKC and Seattle have been given up to drug dealers and criminals. You can't have it both ways. Which is it?