Posted Mon, Mar 5, 8:03 a.m.

"The governor and Olympia Democrats have overstepped badly, in my judgment, and are courting a backlash from voters this fall." ....which will be instantly quelled when the GOP vote on county fairs--Carnies vs. Kids--is thrown back at them. There were no winners Friday night.

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 5:46 a.m.

"Seattle has just been used by the NBA to get a deal for Sacramento. Since nobody died and no tax money was spent — the only dents were to media travel budgets chasing a thin story — it was, as is said often under the hoop: No harm, no foul." ...

Posted Mon, Feb 13, 4:22 p.m.

When the abusive partner tries to crawl back into your life with promises of, "Baby, I've changed!", you probably shouldn't believe it. There is no reason to welcome this product back into civic life here in Washington, not when Stern is still saying such things about the situation. Neither would ...

Posted Tue, Nov 15, 2:19 p.m.

"The 2012 wedge issue will not be gay marriage, but President Obama's healthcare law." I sincerely doubt it. The polling on the individual mandate is mixed, and when Obama points out the big things in the bill (pre-existing condition! kids staying on their parents plans until 25!), the argument is ...

Posted Thu, Jul 14, 1:10 p.m.

Oki decries the waste and inefficiency of school bureaucracies statewide. “Washington state has 295 school districts. Sixty-two have less than 200 students, and each district has a superintendent.” Those 62 districts have some of the highest graduation rates in the state, and the most recent JLARC study said that school ...

Posted Fri, May 6, 12:26 p.m.

"Another wedge issue would be charter schools and vouchers, where the long Democratic lock on Olympia has kept the state charter-free." The last time the issue came up, it was the voters who rejected charters through referendum. Blaming that on Democrats is silly.

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 11:25 a.m.

To my perception, McKenna's biggest issue is going to be that his party has swung far to the right, and if he goes there he's going to lose his moderate cred and be painted as a Tea Partier. If he doesn't, he loses the base and then the election when ...

Posted Thu, Apr 14, 7:54 a.m.

The 3% paycut for teachers was proposed in as awkward and clumsy a manner as the $300 million the House banked on liquor privatization, and they ran with the average daily attendance proposal without really vetting it with the people who would be impacted most. Two major policy pieces in ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 7:53 a.m.

This is a nice enough piece, but I think that the time you're spending differentiating skill from knowledge is truly a distinction without a difference. It sounds great, but part of the problem I perceive with schools today is that there's a great class of people who suck the resources ...

Posted Thu, Mar 24, 8:22 p.m.

"But with the way elementary school is structured, reading instruction must give way to other subjects; there’s not enough time on task for the kids who are below grade level." I think that you're quite a ways off from the truth here. In my experience (8 years as a first ...

Posted Wed, Mar 23, 10:07 a.m.

Glen Stockwell out of Ritzville, who has run for the State House in the 9th LD on a couple of occasions, is probably one of the most knowledgable people in the state when it comes to discussion of finishing Phase II. Good guy, and he's absolutely right on the issue.

Posted Sun, Mar 13, 10:25 a.m.

Paragraphs two through four completely lost me, so I'll let them go. The piece that I think deserves a bit more conversation is this: "In eastern Washington the substantial growth around the Tri-Cities (8th and 16th legislative districts) and the moderate loss in Spokane’s 3rd will require some adjustment, as ...

Posted Sun, Mar 6, 2:49 p.m.

"Teachers unions have resisted testing of teachers for competence in their subject." And yet we still have the WEST-E, the WEST-B, and Lord only knows what other tests that teachers have to go through to get their certificates. This was one of your sillier comments.

Posted Mon, Feb 28, 7:18 a.m.

I'm sorry, PJS, but the private sector isn't the public sector. It sounds trite, but but it's equally as trite to say, "This worked for A, so it will work for B." As an example, your point about "Bad managers frequently fail." No, they don't. In the public sector, when ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 3:34 p.m.

"Predictably, he does not address the underlying issue --- why are public employee unions good for the taxpayers?" The efficiency of bargaining 1 agreement for 1000 employees instead of 1000 agreements for 1000 employees. The ability to collectively discuss issues, both ways, instead of a piecemeal approach from office to ...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 9:54 p.m.

"they are protecting the whole status quo and resisting any and all efforts to take risks and innovate" You could randomly shave the head of every 10th child. It's innovative and risky! Or you could discard the bad ideas without trying them, because they're bad ideas.

Posted Thu, Jan 13, 12:55 p.m.

Wilbur: that's kind of a weasley answer. The information provided by Crosscut simply says that he's of the Washington Research Council, without actually linking to the Washington Research Council. The name alone means almost nothing. Good on you for taking the next step and going to Google, but in the ...

Posted Wed, Jan 12, 2:36 p.m.

It seems a little odd to not also mention that the author is the primary writer for the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy (WashACE), which has a direct relationship with the Chamber of Commerce and a wide swath of the business community in Washington.

Posted Fri, Nov 26, 10:19 p.m.

"the likely next governor, Rob McKenna" No.

Posted Thu, Nov 25, 9:30 a.m.

Here in Spokane a group lead by local businessman and radio host John Waite has been having similar conversations for the better part of a year. I hope for their success.

Posted Fri, Nov 19, 9:17 a.m.

The WEA has been a leader from the beginning on encouraging National Board Certification, which carries with it a bonus of $5000 to $10,000 for accomplished teachers. Statewide there are plenty of locals where teachers make additional money based on factors besides seniority. It should be understood, too, that the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 28, 10:53 p.m.

Maybe I'm jaded, but why is this news? If Berkey is a lousy enough incumbent that the joke candidate can still beat her in the primary, no matter what support he got, then I can't really see blaming Moxie Media for picking off the low-hanging fruit.

Posted Wed, Oct 27, 12:55 p.m.

In 10 years we'll talk about the Tea Party like we do the Nader voters of 2000, the Perot voters of 1992, or the John Anderson voters of 1980.

Posted Sun, Oct 17, 10:31 a.m.

Repealing the mortgage interest deduction would be bad for builders, banks, and middle class homeowners. That may well be the worst tax reform idea I've ever heard.

Posted Fri, Oct 15, 8:02 a.m.

Didn't Rosa Franklin retire? Didn't the Democrats control Olympia most every time she brought her income tax idea forward? Didn't it die every single time? You're my boy, BlueLight, but your Rosa Franklin Mountain doesn't even get to molehill status.

Posted Sat, Sep 18, 12:47 p.m.

....and with that O'Donnell win, the national narrative is quickly turning into how out-of-touch folks like her, Rand Paul, Sharon Angle, and many more are. Plus the Dems are playing this tax cut debate exactly right, which is going to write some tough questions for GOP candidates in the coming ...

Posted Mon, Sep 6, 4:53 p.m.

I'm more than a little amused that the only positive comment this article received was also chosen as the Editor's Pick.

Posted Sat, Jul 31, 9:11 a.m.

Rasmussen yesterday had Gregoire at a 46% approve + strongly approve. Would you agree that the updated cash on hand numbers would be: Baumgartner: $49,000 (down from $70,000 in the article) Litzow: $35,000 (down from $45,000 in the article) Fain: $47,000 (down from $69,000) Then there's Gregg Bennett and Andy ...

Posted Fri, Jul 30, 9:08 a.m.

Could you talk about how you got your cash on hand numbers? I usually go off of the PDC website, which if you subtract Spent and Debt from Raised only shows Litzow with $19,000 and Baumgartner with $47,000.

Posted Wed, May 26, 3:07 p.m.

"The stock market may decide Rossi's fate, just as it did in 2008." Blaming outside forces is fine, but Rossi losing in 2008 had a hell of a lot more to do with his poor performance in the debates and his failure to connect with the voters than it did ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 8:29 a.m.

I'm curious as to what Sen. McCaslin will to in the 4th LD (Spokane Valley). Were he to retire you could easily see Rep. Matt Shea take that seat, which would be a fun dynamic to watch.

Posted Thu, Apr 8, 9:37 a.m.

"On the other hand, how are we going to get out of our fiscal mess? I suspect the only real strategy our leaders have is a kind of Katrina Maneuver. Let things get so bad the federal government has to come in with disaster relief. Heckuva job, Mr. Speaker!" That's ...

Posted Thu, Jan 21, 9:20 p.m.

Patty Murray is great on military issues. That makes her Fairchild's Senator, Fort Lewis' Senator, McChord's Senator, etc.

Posted Tue, Jan 19, 9:28 p.m.

Turnout in heavily Democratic Boston was disappointing. and he needed to abandon a hard one-party governing strategy that threatened to cost Democratic congressional incumbents dearly this coming November. and a willingness to adjust his domestic agenda toward entitlement-spending reform. You lead off with the dearth of Democrats who turned out ...

Posted Thu, Dec 31, 7:07 a.m.

Chris: "Ryan, "The election for Governor was over early in 2008." That just isn't true: http://crosscut.com/2008/12/03/2008-election/18677/" My apologies; I meant to say "early in the night" as compared to 2004. Sen. Rossi may have taken his time giving up the ghost, but when Gregoire was out there on election night ...

Posted Wed, Dec 30, 1:40 p.m.

Another problem that Hutchison would face is that Murray is exceptional on military and veterans issues--what she has done for our bases and VA hospitals can't be matched. You start reminding people in Pierce and Spokane counties of that, and it gets that much harder for Susan to be competitive. ...

Posted Sat, Nov 28, 10:35 a.m.

The trouble with Sen. Zarelli and his special session is that his big money saving ideas are deport all the illegals and end bilingual education, things that aren't within the state's power to really address and certainly not in a two-day session.

Posted Wed, Nov 25, 7:18 a.m.

The rigorous curriculum of AP courses and similar approaches such as the International Baccalaureate program works well for all students. You had me up until this point. AP and IB are great as a menu of options, but I look just as askance at the idea that every kid should ...

Posted Fri, Nov 13, 1:25 p.m.

Randy: I'm going to have to challenge you on that, because the graduation rates and WASL percentages for most on-line schools here in Washington State are abysmal. Consider Insight Academy in the Quillayute Valley School District, where less than 20% of the kids manage to get past the 10th grade ...

Posted Fri, Nov 13, 7:26 a.m.

"The NAEP provides a lot better benchmark than the WASL and its ilk." Not really. Look at the push right now out of the DoE for national standards; if the NAEP was what it's presented to be ("The Nations Report Card"), couldn't we just use the NAEP standards? Similarly, given ...

Posted Mon, Oct 26, 7:35 a.m.

“many administrative costs (Supervision of Instruction, Supervision of Nutrition, Supervision of Transportation, and Supervision of Buildings) have been assigned to other categories without explanation. All other districts examined report these costs as Central Administration.” As someone who looks at many, many F195 and F196 reports, and who certainly isn't a ...

Posted Thu, Jun 25, 9:32 p.m.

KIPP is a nice success story, and that's good for them. The trouble with KIPP, or Green Dot, or Harlem Success, or any other model is that they've yet to develop the ability to go to scale. Beyond that, though, I think a harsh reality is that their success isn't ...

Posted Wed, Jun 24, 4:39 p.m.

The NAEP is a lousy measure, and I'm mystified to this day why it's given the credence that it is. Consider that it purports to be a national test when we still don't have national standards, that those standards that it is benchmarked against are nearly impossible to find, and ...