tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post5915439092661503235..comments2024-03-27T21:02:08.203-07:00Comments on Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Wealthy Folks Try to Take Over the Seattle School Board, Again.Cliff Mass Weather Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-29199837716527949682013-09-29T22:08:50.901-07:002013-09-29T22:08:50.901-07:00Can you please explain why you think David Brewste...Can you please explain why you think David Brewster is a promoter of 1%ers taking over the Seattle School Board? ("And David Brewster was very honest; this is exactly what he <b>and his fellows</b> are doing this time around. They are attempting to use massive resources to get their way.") <br /><br />I found the page from which you pulled the quote ""Seattle School Board races have to be treated like Seattle City Council races, complete with consultants, polls, and a budget of several hundred thousand dollars", and in context it does not appear to me to indicate Brewster supports the so-called "reformers." (source: http://crosscut.com/2011/12/19/seattle/21697/Two-big-shockers-for-Seattle-schools-cops/?page=singleToby Thalerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09595023255642506679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-16709876261710943822013-09-25T10:29:03.880-07:002013-09-25T10:29:03.880-07:00I don't follow the upper echelons but my perso...I don't follow the upper echelons but my personal experience with SPS faculty as a volunteer with the Nathan Hale FRC team makes me entirely fed up with the entire "war on teachers" approach espoused by outsiders.<br /><br />We get --incredible-- value for our money from SPS faculty, because (of course, duh) the faculty are not motivated by money, but by their love for helping to grow happy citizens in a well-functioning civil society. <br /><br />It's notable that "reformers" are always all about money, one way or another. Somebody's getting too much, somebody else is having to pay too much. Education isn't about money; education is not a profit-center and nor is it a zero-sum game. <br /><br />When you're used to working with hammers, everything looks like a nail. People who spend their lives focused on balance sheets don't have a healthy perspective when it comes to the basic services provided by government, such as education. dbostromhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885863615343906724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-67147603397087284322013-09-25T10:28:45.662-07:002013-09-25T10:28:45.662-07:00I don't follow the upper echelons but my perso...I don't follow the upper echelons but my personal experience with SPS faculty as a volunteer with the Nathan Hale FRC team makes me entirely fed up with the entire "war on teachers" approach espoused by outsiders.<br /><br />We get --incredible-- value for our money from SPS faculty, because (of course, duh) the faculty are not motivated by money, but by their love for helping to grow happy citizens in a well-functioning civil society. <br /><br />It's notable that "reformers" are always all about money, one way or another. Somebody's getting too much, somebody else is having to pay too much. Education isn't about money; education is not a profit-center and nor is it a zero-sum game. <br /><br />When you're used to working with hammers, everything looks like a nail. People who spend their lives focused on balance sheets don't have a healthy perspective when it comes to the basic services provided by government, such as education. dbostromhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885863615343906724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-40435823641572087562013-09-24T11:37:54.470-07:002013-09-24T11:37:54.470-07:00Patrick,
Michele, and Ms. Estey, are relatively n...Patrick,<br /><br />Michele, and Ms. Estey, are relatively new to this. If they had spent the last ten years in the trenches of education reform they would know that the Gates et. al. crowd is behind Estey. <br /><br />They aren't for smaller classes. They are for more testing, computers and data over teachers and support, and charter schools. They oppose local school board control (in favor of Common Core and mayoral takeovers).<br /><br />Like it or not, Ms. Estey is their candidate. <br /><br />She lambasts her potential future colleagues by labeling them as "dysfunctional" and runs with the backing of those "fed up" with the past two years.<br /><br />No, Estey most certainly won't lower class sizes. If she is true to her supporters they will increase, along with the central administration's budget for tests and data collection. <br /><br />Joseph Rocknehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18395780229029985101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-88562215931026746382013-09-24T10:56:19.182-07:002013-09-24T10:56:19.182-07:00Thanks for the heads up, Cliff. Sounds like we...Thanks for the heads up, Cliff. Sounds like we'd better get involved. Sysiphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08483730910883469883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-48669085195917161892013-09-24T08:43:50.150-07:002013-09-24T08:43:50.150-07:00Michelle, my child's kindergarten, 7 years ago...Michelle, my child's kindergarten, 7 years ago now, had 31 kids. No public school parents or teachers want classes that big, so why are there no prospects of reducing them in the future? The anti-teacher's-union folks. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through the many organizations they support, promote the idea that "teacher quality" is more important than class size or students' home life. The state that actually funds the public schools and funds them at a low level. When the children of most of these folks go to school, they go to private schools with class sizes in the teens.Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16260807460417787614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-32897479769500458592013-09-23T20:53:27.496-07:002013-09-23T20:53:27.496-07:00Michelle,
What you say might be true. But remembe...Michelle,<br /><br />What you say might be true. But remember, the school board will have little to no impact on classroom headcounts; that's an issue that will be driven by increasing enrollment and whether or not the state meets its constitutional burden and adequately funds education.<br /><br />While I certainly don't like the idea of Ms. Estey's campaign being funded by wealthy individuals that have no children in the schools and do not live in our city, I have an even greater problem when she fails to acknowledge their existence. <br /><br />During a recent candidate forum she was asked to name her top funders. She said she didn't know, but she knew her parents donated to her campaign. She also remembered that a senior citizen gave her seven dollars. <br /><br />Are we to believe that she was unaware that one of the richest people in the world (Steve Ballmer) gave the maximum amount to her campaign? <br /><br />When she started her campaign she proudly claimed she would raise $100,000 to $150,000. She said she was not afraid of "the ask."<br /><br />Yet when asked about the funders, she was afraid of "the tell." Really?<br /><br />Finally, the problem with her campaign is that it represents the worst in a new paradigm; school board campaigns fueled by large sums of money and driven by political consultants and polls.<br /><br />You may like Ms. Estey and she might be a decent school board member, but her campaign makes it impossible to envision future candidates coming forward unless they have the political and business connections necessary to win.<br /><br />We should encourage an environment that leads to more candidates willing to come forward to run for these difficult positions. <br /><br />Ms. Estey's campaign does the opposite.Joseph Rocknehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18395780229029985101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-56221747699992893702013-09-23T15:29:29.169-07:002013-09-23T15:29:29.169-07:00Michelle - certainly her contributors shouldn'...Michelle - certainly her contributors shouldn't be the only criteria used to judge SDE. But, it is worth considering. Prior board members said they were against charters too. One of them, Steve S, conveniently switched positions and now chairs the state charter commission. We also saw how prior and current board members actions seemed too closely aligned with special interests who also happened to be their largest contributors (such as approving TFA contract). SDE has bragged about her connections that enable her to raise money (watch the 36th district interview). This makes her seem disingenuous when she said at the 37th district meeting that she didn't know who her top contributors were.<br />Besides, why does she need to raise so much money and how did she know she could get it? Lower budget campaigns did quite well in the last election. It's no secret that her contributors/backers want to see a more business friendly board. How did she convince them to give her so much money? Perhaps she was a compromise candidate for them. <br /><br />But, even if we put aside this issue, SDE clearly lacks knowledge and background in education compared to Sue Peters. She has essentially no track record prior to her campaign on education issues. Saying she opposes charters and is for smaller class sizes is easy to do in the campaign (especially when i-1240 is over). In fact, those positions are probably prerequisites to be considered viable in Seattle. But, without any real record on education, we don't really know what her positions will be in the heat of tense issues. Sue Peters, on the other hand, has almost a decade of experience on education including publishing articles and involvement with the district. We can see that she opposed school closings, has supported stronger curriculum, supported better teacher evaluation and better district/teacher relations, that she helped select a strong superintendent (and pushed the board to hold the prior one accountable), and pushed the district to more authentically engage parents. Her stellar track record makes it emphatically clear she will be representing students, parents, teachers and the community. With SDE, we just don't know. chungahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11106667474153634408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-67525929567399053832013-09-23T10:57:51.642-07:002013-09-23T10:57:51.642-07:00These rich want to run the schools like a business...These rich want to run the schools like a business - specifically Lehman Brothers. Hoping they will collapse and so their property tax bills won't have to pay for any school. They could care less if the kids are receiving any education. And if the kids start running rampant on the streets and start committing crimes, there are many for profit jails to jail them. Maximizing profits for themselves and their shareholders - this is their only motivation.Kenna Wickmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02802821050975830973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-7026028743967149752013-09-23T09:46:37.279-07:002013-09-23T09:46:37.279-07:00Also note that Suzanne has served on the Seattle B...Also note that Suzanne has served on the Seattle Business Climate Coalition and the Alki Foundation Board (per http://rentonwa.gov/news/default.aspx?id=6394). The latter group was morphed into Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (per http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/alki-foundation-to-dissolve), which is the group behind "Great Seattle Schools", the group that put out hit-piece flyers against Sue Peters. I find it very disingenuous that Suzanne would claim she had no knowledge of it. She may have technically had no knowledge of the specific flyer, but it seems highly likely given her connections that she knew they would be doing something like this. chungahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11106667474153634408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-68386615784750827512013-09-22T22:13:28.622-07:002013-09-22T22:13:28.622-07:00I don't know much about Cliff's candidate ...I don't know much about Cliff's candidate - she sounds worthy of my vote, if she were running against someone else. I've known Suzanne Dale Estey for many years and he's taking shots at her that aren't completely fair, in my opinion. While the District's financial situation is better (thank goodness), other problems have certainly cropped up. There were 29 kids in my son's kindergarten class last year. And 29 again in 1st grade. That is too many kids for one teacher. I specificaly asked Suzanne about charter schools and class size last week and she was against the first and for reducing the second. Receiving large donations doesn't mean she won't represent the average parent in Seattle and keep our schools on an improving track.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04728911202340405617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-6913364766516465702013-09-22T18:03:21.867-07:002013-09-22T18:03:21.867-07:00Thank you!! This ought to be an obvious choice, b...Thank you!! This ought to be an obvious choice, but the facts and history help immensely. Not all Democratic Party organizations are buying what Estey has to sell, by the way. One nit -- Kate ran with that reform effort, although she lost. And, Smith-Blum's likely replacement is a big question mark, but there are some saying he is with the corp ed group. So there is always more work to do.ktkellerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02643762231547125207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-85292156435872687002013-09-22T17:38:16.482-07:002013-09-22T17:38:16.482-07:00Thank you for your education advocacy, Cliff. It&...Thank you for your education advocacy, Cliff. It's very important how you point out and challenge the spin that Suzanne Estey's campaign is trying to put out there about a massively dysfunctional school board, etc. It seems Michael DeBell wants to leave the board and take the district down with him. Your facts do a nice job countering that as facts always do. Kate Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00850521672242690825noreply@blogger.com