A coalition of Washington state public school advocates, including the historically pro-establishment tax-and-spend League of Education Voters, has filed a charter school initiative for the November ballot. Allowing 40 charter schools over 5 years is tepid in terms of the reforms that the government education monopoly needs to be successful, but it's a step in the right direction.

Washington voters have rejected well-funded charter schools initiatives and referenda in the recent past, so I wouldn't bet on the outcome, but will be rooting for it.

Meanwhile:

Mitt Romney launched a blistering attack Wednesday on President Barack Obama and teachers unions, saying they're blocking crucial revisions to education and are hurting children, particularly young Hispanics and other minorities.

"This is the civil rights issue of our time," Romney said. "President Obama has been unable to stand up to union bosses and unwilling to stand up for kids."
...
[Romney] proposed a series of changes, including greater choice in public education, more charter schools and digital learning, and a one-two punch of less job security for poor teachers and higher pay for better ones.

"Seattle firefighter caught with meth still being paid, faces new charge"

A Seattle firefighter recently convicted on a drug charge is now accused of violating a protection order secured by a former girlfriend - and remains on the fire department payroll.

The new charges filed Monday against firefighter Paul Hermosillo came less than a month after the 34-year-old pleaded guilty to a drug crime related to his arrest last year on the University of Washington campus. Hermosillo was caught with methamphetamine while having consensual sex near a campus fountain. ... He remains on the department payroll despite the misdemeanor drug conviction.

After reading that very interesting letter from Professor Radnitz, I thought some of you might like to read this old post of mine.

(And I suppose I should add that the old post is just an appetizer.  I have much more for you on Republicans and education, but will not promise to deliver it soon.)

A letter to the editor in this week's The Economist:

... one thing we can objectively assess is the likely effect of the Republican Party's policies if put into action: a government that does not invest in education, or roads, does nothing to prevent monopolies, protect the environment, ensure minorities' civil rights, or assist the poor and elderly with health care.

I teach a course on failed states, and the logical consequences of the right's vision resemble Russia in the early 1990s or much of sub-Saharan Africa today. Grover Norquist might fare well in this world, but for those who value the virtues of a modern democratic society, the think-tankers are right to challenge the fiction of the "freedom-trampling" federal government.

The writer: Scott Radnitz, Assistant professor of international studies, University of Washington, Seattle

If I were among the eminent scholars affiliated with the UW Jackson School for International Studies, I'd be embarrassed to have that institution's name attached to the hysterical, unscholarly idiocy expressed in Radnitz's letter.

As far as I can tell, almost none of the voters in that San Francisco district miss Jay Inslee, though I suppose the senior 8th district congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, may.

In the 111th Congress, Jay inslee voted with his party leadership, that is to say, Nancy Pelosi, 99 per cent of the time.  He had decided, for whatever reasons, to follow her lead, to become a junior congressman representing her district, rather than represent Washington's 1st district.

If any of our local reporters think that Inslee's record is a legitimate issue in the governor's race, they may want to ask him why he spent that session of Congress representing San Francisco, rather than Bainbridge Island, Shoreline, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Bothell, Kirkland, and Redmond.

And if they are really enterprising, they may want to ask him whether he voted for Pelosi in the last leadership contest, and, if so, why.  (The votes in these leadership contests are secret, but we know that Heath Schuler received 43 votes.  Was one of those Inslee's?)

The current Almanac of American Politics has just two brief paragraphs on Inslee's accomplishments, but there is still enough there for reporters to begin asking him questions.  If, that is, they think questions about his record are legitimate.

Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics