Tacoma School
District Teachers Contract
A Pierce County Superior Court judge said in court
this morning he might authorize the Tacoma School District to hire replacement
workers if striking teachers do not return to work as he ordered Wednesday.
Chushcoff suggested such an authorization might
convince the vast majority of the teachers, who have not shown up to work since
Sept. 12, to return to their classrooms while their negotiators try to reach a
contract agreement with the district.
“I’m seriously considering doing that,” the judge
said. [...]
Seattle schools
Seattle's Loyal Heights Elementary has been named a
national Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education — one of just
304 schools in the country to achieve the designation this year.
The award honors public and private elementary,
middle and high schools where students achieve at high levels, or where the
achievement gap is narrowing. Since 1982, more than 6,500 of America's schools
have received this award, according to the Department of Education.
The school will be honored at a conference and
awards ceremony Nov. 14 and 15 in Washington, D.C. [...]
Curriculum
For years, the debate has been over what types of
standardized testing students need to pass to get a high school degree.
This week, educators talked about what types of classes students need to take
-- and those requirements may be changing.
The Washington State Board of Education discussed changing credits that students need
to achieve in high school. If the changes occur, it would be the first time
since 1985, and would affect students now in eighth grade.
The potential changes would keep the state-mandated number of high school
credits at 20 but change the allocation of those credits. The number of English
and social studies would increase while the number of elective credits would
decrease. [...]
Budget
WASHINGTON
– President Obama this morning laid out his vision for deficit reduction,
calling for $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue and $583 billion in spending cuts during the next 10 years.
The president’s proposal would cut the deficit by $3
trillion overall, taking into account savings from troop draw-downs in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The new tax revenue would come from closing
loopholes and ending subsidies for oil and gas companies, among others, and
from instituting minimum tax rates for Americans who earn $1 million or more
annually.
“This is not class warfare, it’s math,” Obama said
in an address in the White House Rose Garden. ``We can’t just cut our way out
of this hole. It’s going to take a balanced approach.” [...]
Education policy
Educators and analysts are taking a hard look at
whether the $55 billion K-12 portion of President Barack Obama’s nearly $450
billion jobs plan will provide
the jolt to schools still feeling the pinch of a sputtering economy that the
administration hopes.
The plan faces long odds on Capitol Hill, where
lawmakers are struggling to trim at least $1.2 trillion from the deficit over
the next 10 years in a climate hostile to tax increases. But, if the plan does
pass, some sympathetic analysts argue it would help school districts cover the
cost of long-delayed school repairs and avert big layoffs and program cuts.
Others, however, question the White House’s
prediction of 280,000 teacher layoffs this year—a key argument raised in favor
of the need for $30 billion over two years in job-preservation aid. [...]
