In a plan approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature last
year, Arizona became the first state to make every student, even those
from wealthy families, eligible for a school voucher — on average worth
about $7,200 per student annually.
The state deposits the money
into Education Savings Accounts for parents, which can be used to pay
for private school or home schooling. If the student was enrolled in
public school, the money follows the student. If the student was being
privately educated, the voucher is a new cost to the state.
The program has been highly contentious — and hugely popular.
Since launching in September, it has grown from about 12,000 students to
more than 59,000, outpacing projections. State education officials
estimate enrollment could grow to 100,000 by next summer.
"Washington lawmakers voted nearly unanimously Friday to strengthen
oversight of private special education schools that serve some of the
state’s most vulnerable public school students."
The city wants to spend $165,000,000 (ya that’s $165 million)
on another sports stadium in Seattle. This time it’s for replacing Memorial Stadium
which is technically owned by the Seattle School District.
Where will the money come from? You guessed it from your bank
accounts!
When I was in high school we along with the rest of the
Metro league played our football games in Memorial Stadium. In the 90s Seattle
Public Schools went on a very expensive High school sports fields building
spree which today including renovations and upgrades probably exceeds the $150
million they want from us to build another stadium. The
point of building stadium fields at each High school was to avoid having to
juggle so many games over a week-end and fans having to drive across the city
to fight over expensive parking with the crowds there for other city center
events.
We already have invested so much money in all these high
school stadium fields that spending another $165 million does not make sense
for Seattle school district.The
district is basically broke and can barley meet its current financial obligations.
If various groups in Seattle want to build a new stadium
then they should follow in the University of Washington’s footsteps and ask all
those big buck donors to once again pony up and pay for a new sports stadium.
- On April 25, 2023 the WA state governor signed House Bill
1240 into law. The law basically restricts or bans WA state citizens from future
sale, manufacture and import of assault-style semi-automatic weapons.
There is one very large issue with this law and that is the state has given one
entity a waiver to the law. Aero Precision is a weapons manufacture located in
Lacy WA that can still manufacture all types of banned weapons they just can’t
sell them to Washingtonians.
This seems to go against the spirit of what the law intended
to accomplish. This loophole allows Aero_Precision to manufacture weapons and then sell them outside of Washington state
where they might be used in various crimes including school shootings. Why
would the Washington state governor allow these weapons of mass killings to be
exported to other states? If these weapons are such a menace to society as he
claims then wouldn’t it be prudent and justified to stop the manufacturing and
export of these mass killing machines?
I’ve sent emails to most of the local Democrat state representatives
for a clarification and so far none have responded.
It was a bright sunny 2019 June afternoon when I picked up my
daughter from her high school located just off of Aurora Ave. North. As
we made our way home we stopped at the red light on 125th and Aurora
where a very young women crossed the street in the crosswalk. This isn't
unusual except for the fact that she wasn't wearing any pants or
underwear. Fast forward to 2023 where the above mentioned situation is
now considered not only normal but condoned by the city of Seattle
administration.
Prostitution, drug dealing and open fencing of
stolen merchandise is now prevalent all hours of the day and night from
85th all the way to 145th on Aurora. This activity impacts school
children at Cascadia Elementary School, Broadview Thomson K-8 school and
Ingram High School.
This is an example of the Boiling Frog
Effect where if you slowly turn up the illicit activity the people don't
really notice. They just drive by in their cars as very young women are
trafficked right in front of their faces.
My efforts to stop the
illicit activity has resulted in warnings that the traffickers will
come after me to the police will arrest me for harassing the prostitutes
.
My calls and emails to our Mayor asking for a solution have went unanswered. Our
Seattle School District should be working to stop these crimes
from happening so close to our schools but the school board insist on taking
no action.
The Seattle Police responded ,
"The Seattle City Council repealed the Prostitution
Loitering ordinance a couple of years ago. The City also adopted the
harm reduction model which identifies the workers as victims and
discourages enforcement. The City has contracted with
social service agencies to conduct outreach and assist the workers out
of the situation.
The Police Department conducts stings to arrest the
customers a couple of times per month but it has no impact on the
workers. We are also attempting to identify the employers and take
enforcement action but it is difficult as the workers
had no incentive to turn them in.
"Prosecutors allege the suspects kept the 18-year-old victim in the Mount
Baker neighborhood, transported her and a 21-year-old woman to Aurora
Avenue and hotels for sex work, and took any money she earned."
Bishop Unified School District to Pay
$400,000 and Conduct Training for All Employees in Settlement Agreement
for Harming Students During COVID-19 Pandemic
Bishop, California – May 11, 2023. With the help of retired U.S. Federal
Judge Stephen G. Larson, Bishop Unified School District (BUSD) and a
group of Parents who filed claims for damages for violation of their
children’s civil rights finalized a settlement on April 27, 2023. Not
only is the school district required to pay $400,000 because of the harm
suffered by the children, BUSD must also provide counseling and
tutoring for the students, and training for all BUSD faculty and staff
on “public health, response to public health emergencies, informed
consent, and bullying/harassment/retaliation issues.”
BUSD ignored federal informed consent laws and committed many civil
rights violations, including discrimination, segregation, bullying,
harassment, retaliation and denial of a Free Appropriate Public
Education (FAPE). At one school, many healthy students were forced to
remain outside in cold winter weather because they did not consent to
wearing masks. Some unmasked students were segregated outside of
classrooms while other children, also not wearing masks, were allowed to
fully participate in normal classroom activities depending on the
teacher
"On Nov. 8, 17-year-old Ebenezer Haile was shot by another student in a school hallway. The next day, Jones announced a new safety initiative:
Seattle Public Schools would assemble a community action team of
school, police, city and community leaders to assess how safety can be
improved at schools and surrounding neighborhoods.
To address
mental health, a child wellness team made up of psychologists,
counselors, pediatricians and social workers would be launched. Jones
also said the district would conduct an audit of safety plans at
Ingraham and safety reviews of the district’s 106 schools.
The
district says it has accomplished all of those tasks. But Friends of
Ingraham, a nonprofit group led by Ingraham High parents, has sent three
letters to the district asking for more information.
The group
asked for the outcome of the audit, what safety policies and procedures
have been changed as a result, and whether policies and procedures
leading up to the shooting and following the shooting were followed.
The
parent group had a discussion with Jones set up in March, but it was
delayed, said Kathleen Zagers, co-president of Friends of Ingraham. A
meeting is set for this week."
"Washington’s education department hasn’t adequately tracked how
schools are spending hundreds of millions in federal aid earmarked for
pandemic learning loss, according to an audit ordered by state lawmakers.
The
report says the agency failed to collect sufficient data about
interventions meant to help kids recover from learning loss, and has not
monitored whether the investments are helping students improve
academically "
