WWW . THESKANNER . COM
J UNE 13 , 2012
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 24
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
CAR
CAR WASH
WASH
Schools
Audit
Results
Report says the
obvious: Give more
money to classrooms
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
By Donna Gordon Blankinship
The Associated Press
Kristen Wilder and Kevin Chu help wash a car June 9 at a fund raiser for the A. Philip Randolph Institute Seattle Young
Adult Chapter. The group is raising money for a trip to the APRI National Education Conference in Washington DC
in August.
Fuel Costs Down -- but Not Here
Cantwell asks Trade Commission to look at high state gas prices
SEATTLE (AP) — Sen.
Maria Cantwell on Thursday
asked the Federal Trade Com-
mission to investigate why
Washington state gas prices
increased to near-record levels
in May, even as world oil and
national average gas prices
declined.
Average Washington gas
prices are only a few cents
lower than the previous record
high of $4.35, set in July 2008,
when oil was trading at almost
$150 per barrel, the Washington
Democrat said in a letter. The
price of crude oil dropped below
$85 a barrel Thursday.
Cantwell’s letter referred to a
McCullough Research report
that she says found Washington
state gas prices should have fall-
en to $3.51 per gallon if prices
had followed supply costs.
On Monday, the AAA auto
club reported the average price
of a gallon of gasoline in Wash-
ington State was $4.28. That’s
up a penny in a week and 20
cents in a month. It was 69 cents
higher than the national aver-
age.
INDEX
News ........................2,4
Calendar ....................2
Arts & Entertainment ...3
Bids/Classifieds............3
The national average price of
gasoline dropped 17 cents per
gallon over the month of May,
Cantwell wrote.
In late May, Gov. Chris Gre-
goire told the state Department
of Commerce to monitor rising
gas prices in the state and asked
the agency to recommend what
actions can be taken to help
reduce costs to drivers.
The governor sent letters to
every refinery in Washington,
asking them to take all prudent
measures to increase production
and supplies sufficiently to
reduce costs for West Coast
consumers. She said she
planned to send similar letters to
refineries in California.
Repairs and maintenance to a
BP refinery at Cherry Point near
Blaine, Wash., were completed
in May and that refinery has
resumed normal operations after
a three-month outage blamed on
a Feb. 17 fire.
The outage has been cited as
one reason that gasoline prices
have been higher on the West
Coast than the rest of the nation.
See GAS on page 4
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state
school districts could do a better job getting
more of the $12 billion spent each year on
education into classrooms, where it will
make the most difference, a new state audit
said.
The performance audit released Wednes-
day included detailed comparisons among
school districts of similar size, as well as
suggestions about how some are spending
more money in the classroom than others.
The audit noted that moving just one per-
cent of school spending from administrative
offices to the classroom would be enough to
pay for more than 1,000 teachers statewide.
Among the cost-saving suggestions were:
Buy fuel for school buses in bulk, use more
USDA surplus food in the lunchroom, and
look at having some services provided by
the private sector.
It also suggests cutting staffing dollars by
making such changes as hiring licensed
practical nurses instead of registered nurses
for school infirmaries, sharing costs with
neighboring districts, and contracting with
the state or education service districts for
some things.
Although many of the cost differences
among districts involve choices, some are
out of their control, such as how many spe-
cial education students they serve.
The state auditor decided to do this per-
formance review because taking a closer
look at education spending has been repeat-
edly identified by citizens and lawmakers as
a high priority, said department spokes-
woman Mindy Chambers. About 43 percent
of the state budget is spent on K-12 educa-
tion.
Auditor Brian Sonntag wanted the report
to be practical for school districts and
informative for lawmakers, while not trying
to offer a one-size-fits-all approach, Cham-
bers said.
See SCHOOLS on page 2
Port, Unions Fight Against NBA Arena
Longshore workers call Sodo plans gentrification, a ‘land grab’
By Manuel Valdes
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — The Port of Seattle, a
business association and the longshoremen
union characterized a proposed new events
arena in Seattle’s industrial district as a
``land grab’’ that threatens jobs because it
could increase traffic and land value.
``This is just not about a basketball arena.
This is about a land grab in the Sodo area
and changing it,’’ Herald Ugles of the long-
shoremen union told the Seattle City Coun-
cil on Thursday. ``You can build a
basketball arena anywhere. But you cannot
build a world class deep water port any-
where. And that’s what we have in Seattle
right now.’’
The group’s comments came as the city
traffic study funded by the private investor
concluded that additional traffic brought by
events at the arena would not have a major
impact on port and freight operations.
Hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen has
proposed building a nearly $500 million
arena just south of Safeco and CenturyLink
fields. The plan calls for nearly $300 mil-
lion in private investment from Hansen’s
See ARENA on page 4