It is very easy to do nothing. I challenge you, if your inclination is to do nothing, to instead do one thing.

Not sure how to make your voice heard in this legislative session, considering that there are about two billion dollars (~$2,000,000,000.00, or 2×10⁹ dollars) in proposed education cuts? You don't have to do everything, but every one of us ought to do at least one thing. Here are two easy ones:

1. Consider visiting the Washington Education Association Advocacy Headquarters website for ideas. There's even a super quick "click here to tell the Governor and your Legislators to protect our students" button that takes you to a quick and easy form that will guide you to make contact.

2. Set the tone for positive and productive discourse about education by expressing your voice to your local news. Again, WEA has a great portal to get you in touch. 

Seriously: they make it easy. So easy that not one of us has a good excuse to do nothing. Check out the setup at these links above.

By Kristin

Today Washington's governor, Chris Gregoire, announced she would like to streamline education.  Currently, she says, “We don’t have an education system in our state … we have a collection of agencies that deal with education."

Her solution?  To group all of the educational agencies into one single, cabinet-level Department of Education, headed by a Secretary appointed by the Governor rather than our current, elected, Superintendent of Public Education.  To see the clear difference between what is and what might be, look at pages five and six of the policy brief.

What might this entail?  What might educators think about this?  How might it affect us?

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by Brian

This is the 27th January of my career, and I think all of them were happier than this one.  Tomorrow school will begin again, and there are 4 weeks left in the first semester.  I was in my classroom today, getting ready for my students, but also preparing for an important meeting.  In less than 2 weeks the State Legislature will convene, and begin to negotiate a budget that will surely cause serious problems for educators in our state.  So tomorrow my department has invited our Representatives to visit our school and hear our concerns.

Here's a few of them:

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By Tom

For some reason, teachers tend to pair up. Maybe it’s because, like cops, we need someone to back us up. Maybe. Perhaps the two of you have the same teaching style and you love to plan together. Or maybe you started teaching at the same time in the same school and you’re the only two from “that generation.”

Ot it could be that your principal assigned the two of you to work the same grade level five years ago and you’ve been stuck together ever since.

Whatever the reason, most of us are lucky not to have to go it alone. We’ve got a partner.

Last week, the better half of my partnership received some bad news from her oncologist. She’s having some major surgery next week and will be gone from her classroom for a long time.

So what does her partner do? A lot:

• Offer – no, insist – on working with her sub to plan lessons and assessments.
• Stay in touch. Daily.
• Get her students to write cards
• Donate sick leave
• Bring food
• Be there when she gets back to help with the transition

We’re not in this alone. We need each other, sometimes more than ever.

And while I’m at it, today is the second-best day of the year to do something about your half of the partnership. Teaching, done correctly, is not a sedentary profession. We’re not exactly stevedores, bricklayers or centerfielders, but we don’t just sit there. At least we shouldn’t.

So get healthy. Stay healthy. Do it for yourself, your family, and your students.

Do it for your partner.

By Kristin

Surprise!  China is kicking our butts in testing.  The article on Shanghai's dominance in the test scores of 15-year olds can be read here, in The New York Times.

But I don't want to talk about testing, or even Shanghai.  I want to talk about my kitchen sink.

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By Mark

I was hired for my first teaching job when I was 23 years old. One of the first pieces of advice I received–which puzzled me–was to begin to plan immediately for retirement. More seasoned adults in my life were peppering me with questions like How much of my monthly salary was I willing to sock away? What was my personal savings plan? At what age did I want to retire?

Please, people!  I thought. I'm twenty-three. Retirement is thirty years away (if I'm lucky). Why do I need to be thinking that far into the future?

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By Tom

I fell through the ceiling one afternoon. I was up there laying wire from one room to another. Although I had been very careful to stay on the rafters as I brought the wire to its destination, I got a little sloppy on the way back. Passing over our main hallway, I stumbled down onto the ceiling itself and crashed through. The result was a huge mess on the floor and a huge hole in the ceiling.

I stepped from the rubble ashamed and discouraged, awaiting the wrath of a vengeful wife. Au contraire. This was the break she'd been waiting for. After campaigning for years to get the “horrible popcorn ceiling” removed, we now had a reason to get the ceiling of her dreams. My stupidity was her bonanza. Twelve hundred dollars later, the hole was fixed and my wife was delighted.

The state of Washington, along with the rest of the country, has fallen through its own financial ceiling. We’re broke. Federal stimulus money has put off the inevitable for the past two years, but reality has now set in. In order to balance the state budget, class sizes will increase and salaries won’t.

Not unlike my wonderful wife, some people look at this disaster and see a golden opportunity. If we’re going to lay off teachers – and we are – why not lay off the ones who deserve it? Let’s keep the good teachers and fire the bad, regardless of seniority.

A recent story in the Seattle Times gets right to the point: “…student achievement after seniority-based layoffs would drop by an estimated 2.5 to 3.5 months of learning per student, when compared to laying off the least effective teachers.” This comes from a study by Dan Goldhaber and his colleagues, out of the University of Washington’s Center for Education data and Research. Using Value-Added Methodology, Goldhaber compared the 1,717 teachers who were given RiF notices last year with a comparable number of teachers who would be laid off if the decision was made purely on the basis of teacher effectiveness. As it turned out, almost all of 1,717 teachers kept their jobs, at least for now, but Goldhaber went to a lot of time and trouble figuring out that had we actually laid them off, we would be far worse off than had we laid off an equivalent number of lousy teachers.

There’s a lot to think about here.

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By Tom

In my house we have two television sets. There’s a small one in the family room. Its sole purpose is to broadcast baseball games. I control that set. Then there’s the other one. The big one in the living room. My wife controls that set.

So it was when I walked into the living room the other day to eat my lunch. My wife was watching a show called Tabitha’s Salon Takeover. Although there had to be Something Better On, I was doomed to watch it. It’s a reality show featuring a famous hairdresser (Tabitha) who goes around the country fixing up failing beauty salons.

Let me explain at this point that I have absolutely no interest in hair. My personal regimen entails a daily shampooing and a weekly, self-administered trim, using a set of $17.00 clippers set to the shortest length. I treat my hair to no more attention than I give my toenails.

As you can surmise, I’m probably not among the target audience for Tabitha’s show. Nevertheless, I found myself captivated.

You see, it was really not about hair. It was about analyzing a dysfunctional system and fixing it.

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By Mark

A lesson in cause and effect:

1. The economy tanks.
2. People lose jobs or feel cuts in pay.
3. People are less likely to have an income they are willing to spend; there are fewer sales to tax.
4. Less income means families wait to buy homes; the market floods and property values drop, taking property tax collections along for the ride.
5. Total tax revenue for the state collapses.
6. The inevitable cuts occur; schools are not spared.
7. Teachers are RIF'd; support services are slashed.
8. Class sizes skyrocket; materials cannot be replaced; technology stays broken.
9. Students receive less attention.
10. Questions go unanswered.
11. Learning gets harder.
12. Standards aren't met.
13. Tests aren't passed.
14. Schools are threatened: Perform or else.
15. Since tests matter to the powers, whatever resources left are devoted to test prep.
16. The arts, music, technology, skilled courses, PE, and vocational education dissolve.
17. Learning becomes test-prep, not critical thinking or life-enrichment.
18. Fewer students graduate; those who do can pass tests, but lack skills.
19. Trained to pass tests, those new to the labor market are unable to find jobs.
20. Businesses large and small suffer due to a lack of skilled or capable labor.
21. The economy tanks.

Anyone else see it? I see a clear choice that our policymakers and legislators can make, on or around step six.

If we want to turn our economy around for the long run, how decisions are made at step six will make all the difference. If the pleas about children and learning don't work, maybe we need to talk economics.

By Tom

I turned into a baby bird this week. That’s not to say I became a soft, cuddly bundle of fluff. Hardly. More like a greedy, self-serving, fratricidal maniac.

I’m no ornithologist, but from what I understand about bird families, the babies spend their days waiting for their parents to return with food. At which point they chirp loudly, push their siblings aside and compete vigorously for limited resources. They don’t look out for each other. They know full well that there won’t be enough food to go around. Their survival hinges on being more aggressive than the others. 

Baby birds frequently push their weaker siblings out of the nest.

This week, Governor Gregoire unveiled her budget. It’s harsh. Public education, which claims the biggest share of state expenditures, coincidentally took the biggest hit. Among other things, early learning will get cut, classes will get larger, teacher pay will stay put, and National Board Certification bonuses will be suspended. Her budget will have a negative impact on Washington State teachers, and by proxy, the learning conditions of their students.

There’s no disputing the fact that her budget comes in response to horrible fiscal conditions. Washington is supported by a sales tax, so when people stop buying things, the state goes broke. That’s what happened. It’s not the governor’s fault, and it’s not the legislature’s fault. If anyone’s to blame, it’s us, for consistently voting down tax increases.

The governor’s budget is only the opening salvo in what promises to be a long, ugly battle. There will be two more budgets, one from each house, and the final product will be a compromise between the three. It's safe to say, though, that this governor’s budget will pretty much frame the debate.

It will be rancorous. Everyone with a stake in the state budget will be chirping loudly in an effort to convince lawmakers that they need a bigger slice of the dwindling pie. That’s called lobbying.

Educators are no different. Like it or not, we are state employees; the conditions under which we work are determined by the legislature. We need to convince them that the budget has to reflect the importance of early learning, small class sizes, adequate pay and a commitment to professional standards.

No one else will bother. If we don’t say it, it won’t get said.

And meanwhile, advocates for state parks, state prisons, state roads and state healthcare will be stating their cases. Loudly and persistently.

Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against parks, prisons, roads and hospitals. But I trust their advocates to adequately represent my interests. My primary interest in this debate will be education, and that's where I plan to focus my attention.

You should join me. We should contact our lawmakers and let them know how important it is to fully fund education. We should do it often and emphatically, knowing full well that competing interests will be doing the same.

There’s a temptation to pity the governor and the legislature for having to make the tough choices. Resist it. This is what they were begging to be able to do. Remember those yard signs? Those ubiquitous and annoying campaign commercials? That was them trying to convince us that they have what it takes to make tough decisions. Which is what they’re going to be doing.

There’s another temptation to “Take the High Road.” Resist that, too. Most of the time, “taking the high road” is code for doing nothing. Being lazy. “Taking the high road” comes from a song about walking to Scotland. Walking. Not sitting there, doing nothing. So don’t tell me you’re “taking the high road.” Get down here in the low road with the rest of us and beg.

Beg for your students. Beg for your colleagues and for yourselves. And speaking of temptations, here’s some musical inspiration to get you motivated. Or try this, in case you prefer The Stones' slightly ironic and far more chaotic version.

Either way, get busy and beg.