Editorials / Opinion

Gabriel Campanario/The Seattle Times

A major study of public education philanthropy found that education reforms have been accompanied over the last decade by a shift in financial support from private foundations. The biggest example is the shift of philanthropic dollars from traditional public schools to charter schools, a finding guaranteed to fuel flames in the charter vs. traditional public schools debate.

The Michigan State University-led study tracked grants over a 10-year period from 15 U.S. foundations that give the most money to K-12 education.

“Not only are they giving more, but they are giving more, faster, and we find that very interesting,” one of the studies co-authors, Jeffrey W. Snyder told Education Week.

“Beyond Grantmaking: Philanthropic Foundations as Agents of Change and Institutional Entrepreneurs” was released at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco last week. I wrote about that meeting in this column. The research is thick but fascinating because of the power of philanthropic foundations to make social change. Total assets of the United States’ 76,000 foundations has grown from an estimated $272 billion in 1995 to $625 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2012, according to the Urban Institute. How that money influences, and improves, social conditions is worthy of ongoing attention.

But any takeaway that philanthropy is a corrupting influence is too simplistic a view. Nor do I think the authors intend for their research to be used to make that narrow point. The issue is far more complex. Funders are becoming much more active in shaping how their money affects change. They are holding themselves accountable for results.  I would warn against rushing to judge this shift. The impact of private funding, particularly from large foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is far more complex than a good versus bad paradigm allows. Here’s one reason why.

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Roosevelt High School Jazz Band with leader Scott Brown at the Essentially Ellington jazz competition.
Photo: Frank Stewart

Seattle-area high school jazz bands taking top honors at the Essentially Ellington jazz-band competition in New York City is a tradition we’ve grown to expect. But we’re right to get excited about it every time.  Keeping up the winning streak this year, Roosevelt High School’s jazz band won third place over the weekend. Another glorious award added to the collection.

As this Seattle Times story notes, jazz bands from this area have dominated the competition – taking top honors seven times! – since Western states were first allowed to compete in 1999. I”m always in awe of our success because I know the amount of hours spent practicing and the level of discipline and fortitude necessary to become a good jazz musician.

This is about more than excelling at an American art form. These young jazz musicians are building the inner strength, patience and perseverance needed for success in all aspects of life. At a time when much of the school focus is on the three R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic, it is worth remembering the important role of the arts in a well-rounded, quality education. Roosevelt band leader Scott Brown, whose school has ranked higher than any other in this area over the years, puts it best.

 “You are establishing values,” Brown said of music education. “Of team work, of personal expression, having your own voice, but being willing also to listen to what others have to say … most of these kids are not going to go on to be professional musicians. But whatever career path they choose, this is going to be good for them… they develop a strong sense of self, and the ability to respond under pressure and be in front of people with poise.”

President Obama’s efforts to regain America’s economic edge by ramping up science, engineering, technology and math businesses has a fan in Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

Fresh from attending the White House’s third annual Science Fair, Nye spoke this week with the Huffington Post about the smart intersections of science and technology. Nye emphasized a point I’ve often made: America’s success depends on getting more at-risk students to take STEM courses.

The White House last month announced the US2020 campaign encouraging companies to commit 20 percent of their tech employees to 20 hours a year of mentoring or teaching by the year 2020.

Local examples lead the way on the president’s efforts, particularly the robotics club at Tacoma’s Lincoln Center High School. The club is receving widespread recognition, including an expected visit Friday by Gov. Jay Inslee, for computer application designs and a partnership with Bellevue-based Concur Technologies. Employees from Concur have been teaching Lincoln Center students basic coding and software development.

On the national level, Nye – a popular scientist who hosts television shows on PBS, The Science Channel, and Planet Green – is optimistic about the president’s efforts to harness private companies and government efforts.  He also underscores something I believe will be the best thing to come out of all the attention on STEM:  every student getting a solid ground in science and technology regardless of their career aspirations.

“We want our whole society to know and appreciate the value of science … whether or not you become scientist or an engineer,” Nye told the Huffington Post.

President Obama has committed $3.2 billion to bolstering STEM education in K-12 education and creating a teaching corps with expertise in STEM fields. Other critical initiatives include encouraging more girls to study STEM as this Seattle Times op-ed noted last fall. Nye, film actor LeVar Burton and others talk about STEM on the White House lawn in the video below.

Washington Charter School Commission member Cindi Williams wields a macro and micro lens when it comes to viewing public education. She speaks about the power and promise of education from experiences rooted in helping create federal policies for former President George W. Bush that  impact millions of school kids — and from advocating for one particular boy, her young son, who has special learning needs.

Williams is the fifth guest in our occasional “Education Conversations” video series. Watch below:

Editorial writer Lynne K. Varner asked Williams to respond to three questions asked of every previous interviewee:

• What does education mean to you?
• What does an ideal education system look like?
• What’s one reform Washington needs now?

“Education Conversations” is an occasional series from The Seattle Times editorial board, highlighting the latest thinking in education.

These short segments expand on our “3 to 23″ education initiative, an ongoing effort to redefine the state’s duty to educate children between the ages of 3 and 23. Watch all of our videos so far at this link.

School buses are the typical mode of transportation for public schoolchildren. (Photo by Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times)

A KIRO 7 news report about the Seattle Public School using town car services to transport homeless students to school conjured up ugly stereotypes of low-income kids chilling in the back of a limousine while a driver in a chauffeur’s cap ferried them to their destination.  If you’re a parent forced to endure those chilly dark Seattle mornings waiting for the yellow bus, the new story seem to point to something patently unfair.

Moreover, past state audits have criticized  Seattle’s unusually high per-student transportation costs. And for a district no stranger to financial problems and corruption scandals, I can understand why parents might be horrified.

But here’s the reality: Most district students get to school by bus. That includes the estimated 900 students who fall under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act which requires homeless/foster care students to have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including public preschool, that other children have. The district uses approximately 72 town cars or vans a day to transport students. So who’s in those cars? Special education students. Don’t be surprised. That’s for a good reason. (more…)

Time will tell if the Washington Education Association chose Everett teacher Kim Mead to lead the 82,000-member union as part of a bid for fresher, bolder leadership. The union sorely needs more diversity in thinking and a more collaborative approach, as I argued in this column. Earlier this month,  Mead made statements to The Everett Herald that indicated she was  open to collaborating on education policies.

“We should be the ones driving the policies rather than be reactive,” Mead said. “We have to be the voice of public education and if we’re not, we’re not doing our job.”

This may be pragmatism disguised as openness. The union is scrambling to influence reform proposals it once refused to consider. An example is the state Legislature’s push to allow the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to intervene in struggling local schools. The state has always conceded education-related authority to local control. But the federal government’s smart use of grant funds to spur change in local schools is a model the state is looking to emulate.

I’ll take Mead’s point one step further: I said in this recent Opinion Northwest blog post that the union has to stop flailing and attacking everything and start leading on something. If Mead is looking for an example of the kind of collaborative relationships the union can and should be building, she should look to the Seattle Public Schools. (more…)

Washington State University President Elson Floyd is the fourth guest in our occasional “Education Conversations” video series.

Editorial writer Lynne K. Varner asked Dr. Floyd to respond to three questions asked of every previous interviewee:

• What does education mean to you?
• What does an ideal education system look like?
• What’s one reform Washington needs now?

Dr. Floyd talked about being raised in the south as the oldest of four children. His parents never made it past middle school, so he knows firsthand the kind of doors than can be opened for students who have the opportunity to afford and pursue a higher education.

Watch the video:

“Education Conversations” is an occasional series from The Seattle Times editorial board, highlighting the latest thinking in education.

These short segments expand on our “3 to 23″ education initiative, an ongoing effort to redefine the state’s duty to educate children between the ages of 3 and 23. Watch all of our videos so far at this link.

A preschool teacher helps with a class project at Wellspring Family Services in Seattle’s Rainier Valley.
(Photo by John Lok/The Seattle Times)

President Obama released his blueprint for federal spending this week and it would be a shame if it flew under the radar in the Puget Sound region where attention is on state budget proposals in the Legislature.

Obama’s 2014 $3.77 trillion budget proposal tackles the national debt and that will garner most of the attention. But new, targeted investments in high-quality early learning are worth underscoring.

The White House proposes expanding preschool to cover all low- and middle-income 4-year-olds nationwide through a federal-state partnership backed by $66 billion over the next decade. The money would come from raising the federal cigarette tax from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack. This would be a huge game-changer in early learning policy. The preK expansion was singled out in a Washington Post political blog as one of the three best ideas in the president’s budget. There’s a reason for that. (more…)

(Illustration by Gabriel Campanario / Seattle Times)

I read with great interest, and no small amount of sympathy, the Seattle Times story about high school seniors who may not graduate because they have not passed the state required math test. As Times education reporter Linda Shaw noted, these students have “rented caps and gowns, purchased graduation announcements, made plans for college or career training,” and it will all be to no avail if they cannot demonstrate proficiency in math.

I feel for the students whose walk across the stage is threatened. And I hate to sound like a parent wagging a finger and saying, “This is for your own good,” but the tough approach taken by schools is for students’ own good. Graduating from high school without proficiency in basic math is an academic short cut with serious economic consequences.

A real-world example is General Plastics Manufacturing Co. in Tacoma where prospective employees need only a high school diploma. Applicants are given an 18-question math test and they can even use a calculator. Questions include asking how to convert inches to feet, reading a tape measure and finding the density of a block of foam. It may be basic math but as a recent McClatchy story pointed out, only one in 10 General Plastics applicant passes the test. (more…)

Former Congressman Brian Baird (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Gov. Jay Inslee startled many in education circles when he quietly moved to replace half of the Washington Student Achievement Council.

What went wrong so quickly? Former U.S. Rep. Brian Baird of Vancouver seemed a capable chairman of the board filled with boldfaced names.  Inslee is replacing Baird and others appointed by former Gov. Chris Gregoire just last summer. The appointees had expected to serve until 2015 and 2016.

Inslee’s office says nothing went wrong.  The achievement council is “pretty important” to the governor and he wants to make sure it “reflects his vision and priorities,” said his spokeswoman Jaime Smith. (more…)