WWW . THESKANNER . COM
J ULY 11, 2012
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O .28
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
No Child
Law Not
Applied
KIDDIE
PARADE
Feds weaken Bush
Era policy after
Congress’ inaction
By Donna Gordon Blankinship
The Associated Press
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
The Electronetts Drill Team joined half
a dozen other drill teams and
hundreds of children at the annual
Wallingford Kiddie Parade.
The
parade, which is all about the kids,
has been held every summer for over
60 years.
Charter Schools on the Ballot
Dorn opposes what he calls ‘alternative state schools system’
By Donna Gordon
Blankinship
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — Support-
ers of charter schools submitted
more than enough signatures
Friday in their efforts to put the
initiative on the November bal-
lot, shifting the work to per-
suading Washington voters it
will be good for students.
Using paid and volunteer sig-
nature gatherers, backers col-
lected about 350,000 signatures
for Initiative 1240 in about three
weeks. A ballot initiative needs
about 242,000 valid signatures
to qualify, and must be
approved by the Secretary of
State’s office.
State voters previously reject-
ed charter schools in 1996, 2000
and 2004.
The campuses offer options
for parents frustrated with regu-
lar public schools. Some
research have found these inde-
pendent public schools are espe-
cially good at helping minority
and
low-income
students
improve their learning, close the
INDEX
News ...........................3
Calendar ....................2
Opinion .......................4
A&E ..........................2,5
Bids/Classifieds.........6,7
achievement gap and head to
college.
The state’s largest teachers
union says the privately run,
publicly funded schools take
money from traditional public
schools and have not been
shown to do a better job at
improving student achievement.
Other opponents, including
Gov. Chris Gregoire, many law-
makers and gubernatorial candi-
date Jay Inslee, say Washington
has lots of innovative schools
and welcomes more creativity
in the classroom.
Supporters say parents should
decide and the state should take
what was learned elsewhere by
offering only types of charter
schools that have shown to
improve achievement, making
sure the oversight is excellent,
and quickly shutting down the
schools that aren’t working.
The coalition of education
reform groups bringing charter
schools back to the ballot say
the initiative was written with
those ideas in mind.
See CHARTER on page 3
SEATTLE (AP) — The Obama adminis-
tration said Friday that two more states,
Washington and Wisconsin, will be exempt-
ed from many requirements of the federal
``No Child Left Behind’’ education law.
The decision brings to 26 the number of
states granted waivers as Congress remains
at a stalemate regarding an overhaul to for-
mer President George W. Bush’s signature
accomplishment. With more than half of the
states now free from many of the law’s
requirements, there are questions about the
future of No Child Left Behind.
The Education Department began granti-
ng the waivers in February in exchange for
promises from states to improve how they
prepare and evaluate students. The execu-
tive action by Obama is part of an ongoing
effort to act on his own when Congress is
rebuffing him.
The administration says the waivers are a
temporary measure while Education Secre-
tary Arne Duncan continues to work with
Congress to rewrite the law, which is for-
mally known as the Elementary and Sec-
ondary Education Act.
``A strong, bipartisan reauthorization of
the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act remains the best path forward in educa-
tion reform, but as 26 states have now
demonstrated, our kids can’t wait any longer
for Congress to act,’’ Duncan said in a state-
ment released Friday.
The 10-year-old federal No Child Left
Behind law requires all students to achieve
proficient math and reading scores by 2014,
a goal that many educators say is impossi-
ble.
Members of both parties say the No Child
Left Behind law is broken but have been
unable to agree on how to fix it. While it has
been praised for focusing on the perform-
ance of minorities, low-income students,
English language learners and special edu-
See NCLB on page 3
Crowded Field for Secretary of State
State has had only two people in the office over the past 30 years
By Chris Grygiel
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — A rarity in Washing-
ton state politics — an open race to be
Washington’s top election official — has
attracted a crowded field of high-profile
candidates.
Among those running for secretary of
state are Greg Nickels, a former Seattle
mayor who gained a national profile for his
environmental activism; Jim Kastama, a
conservative Democratic state senator who
was a key swing vote in state budget nego-
tiations; Kim Wyman, Thurston County’s
auditor; and Kathleen Drew, a former state
senator and former aide to Gov. Chris Gre-
goire.
Washington state has had only two secre-
taries of state since 1980, Ralph Munro and
the incumbent, Sam Reed, who is not seek-
ing re-election. The secretary of state, who
oversees state and local elections and regis-
ters and licenses private corporations, is tra-
ditionally not as visible a job as governor or
attorney general. However in recent years
the office has been more in the spotlight, as
tens of millions of dollars pour into initia-
See RACE on page 7