It didn’t take long before the Legislature stopped its crowing about how it funded K-12 education and admitted that it was far from the mandates of the State Supreme Court for basic education. How is that? It starts with Stephanie and Matthew McCleary, parents of two public school kids on the Olympic peninsula. They sued…

It’s a good time to talk about money, who has it and who doesn’t, especially with the Legislature at loggerheads about the budget. Why? Because the taxes that fund our state’s budget come largely from the money we all spend. Notice I said “money we all spend,” not “money we all make”? In most other…

What are the elements of a good quality of life? Good, accessible and affordable health care. Being able to pay your bills. Living in a welcoming home. Having a job with a wage that reflects the value of your work. Knowing your kids can get a good education in our public school system, our community…

Our state’s public structures and services are the oil of our economic engine. From roads to bridges, preschool to college, veterans’ benefits to senior services and protections for our air and drinking water, we’re all better off when we invest in strong communities. But there’s a big red warning light on our dashboard: Low Oil.…

One hundred and fifty years ago today, Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, bringing to an end the Civil War. What had begun as a sectional war by which the South sought to preserve and expand slavery into the western territories, ended with the collapse of the South and the liberation…

If you had a child at the University of Washington at the beginning of the Great Recession, you may have been set back by the tuition. In the 2008-09 academic year it was $7,254 (in today’s dollars), almost one-fifth of a full time job paid at the median wage. You may have thought that was…

If your friend told you that she could get a payday loan of $700, and that the interest would be 36 percent, plus a small loan origination fee of 15 percent, plus a monthly maintenance fee of 7.5 percent, you might advise her to get out her calculator. Here’s why: That $700 loan could cost…

Now that the Legislature is back at work, they have to find the revenues for K-12 education, for higher education, for foster kids, for the mentally ill, for the state patrol, for home care workers and early childhood teachers and caregivers.  They also need to confront a fundamental reality of current state financing:  we just…

When is a law not a law? That seems to be the question taken up by The Herald’s editorial board, education “reform” groups like Stand for Children, the Seattle Times, state legislators and now the governor. It is an odd question to ask, as it is directed at Initiative 1351, the class size initiative that…

The just-concluded elections helped to resolve nothing in our state. We will have a small Republican majority in the state Senate and a small Democratic majority in the state House. They won’t agree on much of anything. Perhaps the Legislature can take a few hints from other states and cities around the country. In Arkansas,…