www . tHesKaNNeR . COm
N OVemBeR 30, 2011
s eattle , w asHINgtON
V Olume XXXIII, N O . 57
25
CeNts
i nSide
Obama Biography
page 2
‘Kinyarwanda’
page 6
HIV Report
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
page 7
Black Nativity
Funding
Poor
schools
National report shows
high poverty schools
shortchanged
photo bY SuSan Fried
A
the Black Nativity Choir prepares for opening night of the Black Nativity at the moore theatre Dec. 8-24. the
spectacular gospel song play by american poet, journalist, novelist, memoir and short story writer, langston Hughes,
is a beloved annual event. tickets are available at 1-877-784-4849.
state lawmakers to Cut $2 Billion
Monthlong special session opens with seemly impossible task
by rachel la corte
the associated press
olYMpia, Wash. (AP) —
Washington lawmakers are back
in Olympia for a 30-day special
session focused on addressing
the state’s $1.4 billion shortfall,
scheduling immediate hearings
to begin exploring areas to cut.
Gov. Chris Gregoire wants the
Legislature to send a temporary,
half-cent sales tax increase to
the statewide ballot as early as
March, with the levy pinned to
``buying back’’ cuts that could
be made to areas like education
and public safety. Gregoire’s
proposed budget calls for close
to $2 billion in cuts, reductions
to local governments and fund
transfers, leaving $600 million
in the bank.
Democratic leaders in the
House and Senate will produce
their own plan in the coming
weeks. A House hearing was
scheduled to begin that process
Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a new poll shows
that 64 percent of Washington
voters are likely to support a
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temporary sales tax increase to
mitigate cuts to education and
social services.
The Seattle Times reports that
the Elway Research sampling
found 43 percent of respondents
were ``certainly willing’’ and 21
percent were ``probably will-
ing’’ to back a tax hike proposed
by Gov. Chris Gregoire. The
governor wants the Legislature
to place a ballot measure before
voters, asking for a temporary,
half-cent sales tax increase.
The Elway Poll of 408 voters
was taken Nov. 21-22.The mar-
gin of error was plus or minus 5
percentage points.
Lawmakers are gathering in
Olympia Monday for the start of
a special session to deal with a
projected $1.4 billion deficit.
State officials are expecting
more than 3,000 people from
various groups, including
Occupy Olympia, to rally at the
Capitol building Monday to
protest proposed cuts to state
program. As of early Monday
afternoon, hundreds of people
gathered on the Capitol steps,
See budget on page 3
n analysis of school-level expendi-
tures around the country shows that
many high-poverty schools receive
less than their fair share of state and local
funding, leaving students in high-poverty
schools with fewer resources than schools
attended by their wealthier peers.
Sop says a new report from the US
Department of Education, based on data
from 2008-09.
“Educators across the country understand
that low-income students need extra support
and resources to succeed, but in far too
many places policies for assigning teachers
and allocating resources are perpetuating
the problem rather than solving it,” U.S.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in
a statement Wednesday. “The good news in
this report is that it is feasible for districts to
address this problem and it will have a sig-
nificant impact on educational opportunities
for our nation’s poorest children.”
The Title I program is designed to provide
extra resources to high-poverty schools to
help them meet the greater challenges of
educating at-risk students. The law includes
a requirement that districts ensure that Title
I schools receive “comparability of servic-
es” from state and local funds, so that feder-
al funds can serve their intended purpose of
supplementing equitable state and local
funding.
For the study, Education Department
researchers analyzed new school-level
spending and teacher salary data submitted
by more than 13,000 school districts as
required by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This
school level expenditure data was made
available for the first time ever in this data
collection.
Using the data from the ARRA collection,
Department staff analyzed the impact and
feasibility of making this change to Title I
comparability. That policy brief finds that:
— As many as 28 percent of Title I dis-
tricts would be out of compliance with
See SchoolS on page 3
Is sex-Offender Jail too expensive?
Officials consider moving lockup — but nobody wants it near them
tacoMa, Wash. (AP) — The cost of
locking up sexually violent felons on an
island is growing, and Washington state
lawmakers of both parties say officials
should consider moving the Special
Commitment Center to the mainland.
The mental-health treatment facility for
sex offenders, which costs $42 million a
year, had shared McNeil Island with a
prison, but budget cuts shuttered the prison
in April.
``If it costs a fortune to run this thing on
the island, why are we doing that?’’ House
budget chairman Ross Hunter told the News
Tribune of Tacoma. ``Let’s run the thing
where it’s less expensive.’’
But nobody is clamoring to have nearly
300 sex offenders in their backyard.
Opposition has built in the Centralia area to
housing them at the shuttered Maple Lane
School, a juvenile detention facility in
Grand Mound. Another choice, Western
State Hospital, may not be well-received
either.
Sen. Mike Carrell, whose district includes
both McNeil Island and Western State, said
he would fight a move to the psychiatric
hospital in Lakewood.
See lock-up on page 3