I am currently a sophomore at Columbia Basin College, where I major in political science with a minor in education. I attended two separate high schools before graduating in 2015: Delta High School, the first STEM high school in Washington, for 9th through 10th grade, and then I transferred to Pasco Senior High School to participate in Running Start, a program that allows students in the 11th and 12th grade to attend college courses to earn an Associate in Arts degree upon graduation from high school.
In high school I was a C/D average student. A few Bs made an appearance from time to time but not consistently, and it wasn’t from a lack of trying. My friends were A+ students, always making the honor roll, and they didn’t have to try. I would stay up till 4 o’clock in the morning, sometimes pulling all-nighters to finish assignments and group projects because of short deadlines and multiple assignments coming due at the same time. My friends’ teachers gave them small assignments and did not thoroughly check them to see if they were finished. Because of pre-conceived expectations, if their teachers saw writing on the papers turned in, they would give my friends an A for assignments because they were “completed.” My friends did not know how to find the slope of a y-intercept, learn the stages of mitosis, or master writing an analysis essay, but I did.
As you may know, the Washington legislature is now in the endgame of budget negotiations, which includes finding a solution to funding schools across our state. If you want to see what lawmakers are considering to solve the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision, take a look at our education funding plan side-by-side. Be a part of this historic moment! Help ensure that the McCleary decision is implemented to benefit every Washington student by making your gift today.
Also, LEV interviewed Washington STEM CEO Caroline King on how STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and career connected learning can be applied in the classroom. And we’re hosting a free Lunchtime LEVinar June 20 with former Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge, Founder and CEO of the Center for Children & Youth Justice, on how the education and justice communities can work together to support youth in crisis.
Read below for more about our work.
Thanks for all you do for kids. We couldn’t do it without you.
At the League of Education Voters (LEV), we recognize all of the hard work that you do toward improving public education across Washington state. We are pleased to announce our Activist of the Month for June: Miguel Lucatero. Read about his experience as a strong advocate for Latino parents in the Tri-Cities.
June Activist of the Month Miguel Lucatero
Miguel Lucatero is a licensed home child care provider since 2001 who is participating in the Early Achievers program. He is also the parent spokesperson for Padres de Familia Preocupados por la Educacion y el Exito de Sus Hijos (Parents of Families Concerned for the Education and Success of their Children). In March 2016, a group of Tri-Cities parents met to exchange ideas and find out which kinds of problems they were experiencing in the education system. From there, the parent group Padres Preocupados por la Educacion y el Exito de Sus Hijos was born, and they have continued to meet monthly.
Last month, Mr. Lucatero wrote a letter to the Washington State Board of Education outlining the problems faced by his community, particularly the loss of tutoring services provided under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) when the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) planning stages began.
Miguel has been living in Washington State for 20 years. When asked what drives him, he says, “I am a person who likes to work because I am concerned for the future, the best interest of our children, and the well-being of the community.”
Well. What to say? No. Really. What is there to say? We aren’t going to talk about politics in the other Washington lest we start looking for an all-too-early excuse for room temperature chardonnay. And there’s not been a ton of progress – not public anyway – on the state budget. Fret not! It’s never a bad time to get smarter about education funding. (Put down that chardonnay! Learning is fun!)
They Call Me McCleary: First, you can catch yourself up on where things stand in the negotiations over ed funding – often shorthanded by the name of the court case the state is responding to: McCleary. Don’t miss the fight over the “Staff Mix” in the budget debate or you’ll never get the full story on how we build and perpetuate inequitable funding systems. If you’re going to understand ed funding, it’s good to know where the money goes. And, lest you forget, the people that make up the bulk of the system’s budget have thoughts on how the money should be used.
While we wrestle this issue to the ground and then some other states are working to solve the same problem.
At the League of Education Voters (LEV), we recognize all of the hard work that you do toward improving public education across Washington state. We are pleased to announce our Activist of the Month for May:Elaine Woo. Read about her experience as a strong advocate for science education and fair funding.
May Activist of the Month Elaine Woo
Elaine Woo works with conviction for the children of Washington state. She speaks to legislators in Olympia, visits schools, advocates through phone calls, and recently co-wrote an Op-ed for the Seattle Times.
Elaine became connected with LEV when she received an email about a Lunchtime LEVinar. Soon afterward, she met LEV state field director Kelly Munn at an activist training event, which put Elaine on a path to talking with lawmakers. “I started calling and visiting my legislators as well as writing letters,” she recalls. “It’s great how LEV helps people find a way to have a voice.”
Elaine taught elementary school for 3 years in California before heading to Okinawa to teach for a year with the Department of Defense. She then spent the next 33 years with Seattle Public Schools (SPS), with the exception of a year teaching highly capable education with Seattle Country Day School. Upon returning to Seattle Public Schools, she taught in the Accelerated Progress Program (APP) as well as in the regular classroom for the next 12 years.
After Elaine became the assistant principal at Bryant Elementary in Seattle, she was asked to help parents develop a science program for the school. She says, “Some of the parents told me that every child in Seattle needs a good science education, not just in this school.” Soon afterward, Elaine was approached by Valerie Logan, the wife of noted biologist Dr. LeRoy Hood. Both Logan and Hood took major leadership in helping the Bryant School community and the entire district apply for a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). With the NSF grant, other grants, and district funds, the professional development program was continually developed and implemented for 16 years providing researched-based professional development for elementary teachers.
Elaine worked as an assistant principal at Bryant and then principal at John Rogers Elementary for about six years before leading the grant efforts for science teacher professional development in the Seattle Public Schools central office. “The experience taught me about change,“ she explains. “There are certain areas where each of us just doesn’t want to change.” She learned that making policies stronger is difficult but crucial. Elaine adds, “If policies are better and more supportive, then teachers can do better for their students.”
She has a big issue with elementary science, because there is so much pressure to focus on literacy and math that principals and/or teachers in Washington are left to decide whether or not science will be taught. Elaine says, “It’s too late for many students if you wait until middle school for full-year science.” She also likes the concept of ensuring that students can pass a science assessment before leaving high school. Elaine believes that if a biology assessment, for example, is required for graduation, it sends a message to the students that they need to work harder. She says, “Adults find excuses not to include a science test for graduation. People cling to those barriers, maybe because it’s less work, which is tragic for kids.”
Elaine’s philosophy is that if a teacher has high expectations, participates in research-based professional development, and provides effective support, then students will achieve better. Outside the classroom, our kids need good instruction and support at home, as well. She also weighs in on the McCleary education funding debate. She says, “The accountability portion of McCleary is really hard, but it’s really important.” She notes that there has to be support from superintendents, principals, and parents for raising the bar. “Legislators are walking a fine line,” she explains. “We need to thank them for their hard work.”
On LEV, she says, “The work LEV is doing is fantastic – helping parents and students find information outside of the system.” And when judging her own efforts on behalf of Washington kids, Elaine humbly says, “I don’t do enough, and I’d like to do more.”
As the Washington legislature continues to hammer out a solution to funding schools in our state, now is a great time to honor our teachers through Teacher Appreciation Week. If you are able, please join me in celebrating the adults who care for our kids.
Tomorrow is GiveBIG day. Thanks to a matching grant, every dollar you donate to the LEV Foundation will be doubled, up to $5000. The League of Education Voters collaborates with communities across the state to listen, collect, and amplify stories from educators, parents, students, and community members to support legislators in making informed decisions about public education. Please support LEV’s work with your donation today to ensure the voices of our community are heard by legislators. Thank you!
Read below for more about our work.
Thanks for all you do for kids. We couldn’t do it without you.
Where does Ann Rivers see common ground for McCleary?
Ann Rivers, Co-Chair of the Education Funding Task Force and member of the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee discusses why she decided to run for office, where she sees common ground for a McCleary education funding solution, and her favorite classroom accomplishment when she was a middle school teacher.Listen now
Improving education in Washington
What’s the best way to improve education in Washington? Inside Olympia gets perspectives from Chris Korsmo, League of Education Voters CEO and Washington Education Association President Kim Mead. Watch now
It’s time to #GiveBIG!
#GiveBIG is a day for all of us to come together and stand up for what we believe in. Tomorrow we need YOU to stand up for education and #GiveBIG to LEV Foundation! Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will be doubled with a matching gift. Help us hit the $5,000 matching challenge goal with your gift today! The best part? You don’t have to wait! Schedule your donation now
Donut drop!
Teachers and support staff at Boston Harbor Elementary in Olympia were the lucky recipients of donuts from Hot Revolution Donuts. Hot Revolution Donuts is a mobile food business with a simple mission: to serve the most delicious, highest quality mini donuts directly to you in the Seattle area. Frank Ordway, Assistant Director of Government and Community Relations at the Washington State Department of Early Learning, won the raffle prize of donuts for his favorite school of choice at this year’s LEV Annual Breakfast.Congrats!
New podcast with House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan
House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, member of the Appropriations Committee and member of the Education Funding Task Force, to discusses how parents, teachers and the community can get involved in a McCleary education funding solution, why teachers are so important, and what he would tell someone who is considering a run for public office. Listen now
Get Involved
Many of you are watching closely and know that Sunday, April 23rd was the last day of legislative session, the legislature is now in special session. We would like to encourage lawmakers to collaborate in order to work out a solution that puts equitable funding into K-12 public education.
The Campaign for Student Success believes our education system should:
Provide students the opportunity to earn credits for college while still in high school.
Ensure that dollars follow your student to the classroom – whether they’re spent for English language learners, advanced placement or special education – not on bureaucracy.
Help remove barriers in getting to school for kids who are in poverty, who are homeless, or who face other challenges that increase their risk of falling behind.
Prepare all kids to graduate from high school prepared for careers or college based on their interest and talent.
We need your help in the following two ways:
Make a visit to your legislator in your district.
Make phone calls to key legislators in leadership positions, either on the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee and/or budget committees.
If you can do either of the following, please contact the LEV organizer in your local area:
Whenever the house goes quiet, the hair on the back of my neck goes up and my Spidey senses ask: what are they up to? In my case, “they” would be the neighborhood boys who congregate in the basement. In the context of the legislature, it’s, well… the legislature. It might seem like all’s quiet on the western front, but we know better.
On my first day of first grade, I stood up and said that I wanted to become a teacher. I never wavered from that goal. As I got older, I had the opportunity to work in a school for children with disabilities about the time that PL 94-142 (the first special education law) went into place. I went to Central Washington University and earned my degree in Special Education with an elementary minor. Later in my career I went on to complete two Master’s degrees, the first in Curriculum and Instruction, and the second in Educational Leadership.
I worked most of my career In the Marysville School District, about half the time in special education and the remainder of the time in general education. I have taught kindergarten, first grade, second grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, resource room, elementary, middle school, and high school EBD (Emotional and Behavioral Disorder) classrooms. I have also worked on the core education faculty at Antioch-Seattle, the adjunct faculty at Western Washington University at Bellingham, Everett, North and South Seattle satellite campuses. I was the original developer of both distance and online learning components of continuing education for Seattle Pacific University. And I have consulted on a variety of topics in an eight-state region of the Northwest and Southwest US.
Where all metaphors for things that take longer than planned – again – are pulled out. The legislative session is wrapping up without a budget agreement, which means lawmakers will be called back into special session. For some this is Groundhog Day. For others it’s Mad Magazine. Still others envision a multi-year advent calendar of legislative treasures. And of course, there are the inevitable sports event references. For you Dragnet fans from the Wayback Machine, we even have a “just the facts, ma’am” approach to the effort. However the story gets covered, the plain and simple truth of the matter is that education funding – resolving the over-reliance on local levies while also making targeted investments to improve outcomes – is the major sticking point. Legislators will adjourn over the weekend with much work left to do – let’s hope they aren’t making a deal more difficult on the way out.
If they’re looking for guidance, the Superintendents of Education Service District 189 have some suggestions worth considering. While they’re at it, let’s build in more transparency into the system so that it doesn’t take a massive investment from Steve Ballmer to actually follow the money.
Meanwhile, you can track all that is – or isn’t – happening here on our bill tracker. And hear from one of the 8 legislators working to craft an education compromise, Senator Ann Rivers, here.
In other news:
I’ve marched for a lot of things. But never did I think we’d have to do it for science.
Marchers, leave that plastic water bottle on the shelf and fill a reusable…
By Jennifer Jennings-Shaffer, Early Learning Policy Director at the Children’s Alliance
Guest Blogger
Early learning is the foundation of the education continuum; it supports a child’s progress in school and in life. The House and Senate budget proposals each address early learning—but differ markedly in their approach to three key areas of interest to education advocates. Here’s how:
First, both budgets recognize the value of access to high quality pre-kindergarten. The Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) is quality pre-kindergarten for income-eligible children who all too often face barriers to success in K-12. When poverty and other barriers tip the scales of child development toward the negative, ECEAP tips them back toward a good education, a good job, and a good life. Eligible families earn less than 110 percent of the federal poverty line—for a family of four, that is less than $26,730 per year. Despite delivering proven results in academic achievement, lawmakers fund ECEAP for fewer than half of our state’s eligible families—leaving approximately 23,000 children eligible but unserved. This is a missed opportunity.
The Senate budget proposes to provide access to ECEAP for an additional 1,200 children and increase the rate paid per ECEAP slot to more accurately support our early-childhood educators. The House budget proposes to provide access to an additional 2,043 children and also increases the slot rate. The House budget builds upon the proposal from the Senate; it is good progress toward ensuring that children who stand to gain the most from access to high quality pre-kindergarten get it.
Second, neither budget proposal responds to the crisis we see in child care, where lawmakers are giving working families inadequate support to meet rising costs. Washington is already one of the least affordable states in the country for families to find child care. The rates paid to center-based child care providers serving tens of thousands of children in the Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) program are far below the nationally recommended benchmark of 75 percent of market rate. When lawmakers try to offer assistance at these inadequate rates, child care providers face a difficult choice: serve families at a loss, stop serving them, or pass the cost on to (often only slightly) more affluent families to make up the difference. Lawmakers need to respond by raising rates for Working Connections Child Care paid to center-based providers. Neither the House nor the Senate budget adequately addresses this issue. The Senate budget includes $8.1 million for rate increases and the House budget includes $20.3 million. Advocates estimate that $40 million is the minimum investment necessary to protect access to child care.
Beyond failing to adequately address child care rates, the Senate budget includes deep cuts to child care access and quality. The Senate budget proposes a cut of -$31.9 million in access to WCCC. This cut includes eliminating 12-month authorizations for families and decreasing the number of families who can be enrolled in the program. If enacted, these cuts would mean that enrolled families could lose care in the middle of the year due to minor changes in their circumstances. Families who need and qualify for care would find themselves on a waitlist. Additionally, the Senate budget proposes to cut the Early Achievers program by $16.6 million. Early Achievers supports child care providers to improve their quality. These cuts put the brakes on our steady progress to ensure that Washington kids enter kindergarten ready to learn.
Third, evidence-based home visiting programs and paid family leave are both proven strategies for supporting parents as their child’s first and most important teacher. Both the House and Senate budgets protect access to home visiting services but only the House budget includes funding to implement paid family leave. Quality time at home with one’s newest family members is associated with improved maternal and infant health outcomes and increased employee retention. State and local governments across the country are increasingly implementing this smart policy.
We all have a stake in making sure that ALL our kids get a great start. As the House, the Senate and Governor Jay Inslee prepare to finalize a two-year state budget, we are calling on lawmakers to sustain and enhance their early learning investments. Children’s brains develop more rapidly in the first five years of life than at any other time. We cannot hope to close the achievement gap in K-12 if we ignore the early years.
By Lisabeth Jiménez
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By Jennifer Jennings-Shaffer, Early Learning Policy Director at the