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CarbonWA the heck is going on?
As you may have heard, the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy announced yesterday that they intend to file a ballot measure next year. (The single best article on the topic is Jim Brunner’s “Second group plans state initiative on climate change” in the Seattle Times.) Although this conflict has been simmering since our joint…
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Tim Eyman is Half Correct
Tim Eyman is half correct: let’s lower the sales tax by 1%. The sales tax is regressive and is too too high. But in addition, let’s establish a progressive income tax, capital gains tax, and/or Wall Street transaction tax, to restore fairness to our regressive tax system. After all, the Republicans raised taxes on the…
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A path forward on full funding for Washington’s schools
Good public schools won’t solve all the problems we face — but public education is a crucial cornerstone for creating hope and opportunity for students, and for building stronger communities and a more prosperous, equitable economy. Ensuring every child has equal access to this ladder of opportunity, from pre-school through higher education, is the most…
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Why Bob Ferguson & Randy Dorn are Wrong to Support Charter Schools
On September 24 2015, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion with the Washington State Supreme Court asking them to reconsider their decision that the billionaire funded charter school initiative 1240 violated the Washington State Constitution. Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn, issued a statement agreeing with Bob Ferguson. In this…
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Why Teacher Salaries Have Fallen So Low During the Past 20 Years… and How to Restore Them
Some Seattle School District administrators and school board members have claimed that they do not have money to pay Seattle teachers fairly. In this article, we will look first at the decline in school funding in Washington state compared to the national average during the past 20 years. Second, we will review the related decline…
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If the Anti-Abortion Frenzy Were Actually about Abortion . . . What a Serious Anti-Abortion Movement Would Actually Look Like
Forty years after Roe v. Wade, the Pro-life movement is a radical failure by the very metrics that abortion foes cite to inspire their base. What would a real anti-abortion movement look like? U.S. women have obtained nearly 53 million legal abortions since 1973. That is because self-described abortion foes ignore or oppose the most…
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Republican voters are shockingly misinformed
Poll: Majority of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/252393-poll-majority-of-republicans-thinks-obama-is-a-muslim