David Boze of the Washington Policy Center stated that educational choice is needed in Washington State’s school system “to see what schools are capable of becoming.”  In his blog post, Boze expanded on the arguments previously provided by the Discovery Institute’s Keri Ingraham, in which she asserted that innovation has improved nearly all aspects of our lives, yet public schools are still stuck in the “one size fits all” approach which has dominated K-12 education for 175 years.  Boze states that choice is key to innovation for it drives providers to deliver a better product and enables parents to select an option which best fits their child’s needs. This is far superior to our current system where educational methods “are largely assigned by zip code.”

Many states around the country have begun to see the benefits of providing more choices to students and their families.  Unfortunately Washington State is not among these states for the powerful Washington State Education Association does not want to loosen their control over our state’s education system, and the Democrats who maintain a majority in the legislature are unwilling to upset the teachers’ union due to the millions of dollars they pour into Democrat campaigns.  While other states are progressing and meeting the educational needs of their future leaders, our state is stuck in an antiquated system which is most concerned with meeting the needs of teachers’ union bosses. (Washington Policy Center and Discovery institute)

Puget Sound Auto Theft Taskforce officers place the blame for the dramatic increase in auto thefts on two separate pieces of Democrat legislation which is preventing them from doing their job. The first is the well-known bill (HB 1054) which enables suspected car thieves to flee the police since officers are now severely restricted in their ability to pursuit them. This bill was part of the Democrats’ 2021 anti-police package. (Note: Democrats had the chance to fix this bill during the 2022 legislative session with SB 5919 but caved into the demands of liberal special interest groups and let the bill die at the end of the session.)

The second is a new law (HB 1140) which went into effect at the start of 2022 which prevents officers from talking with suspected criminals who are juveniles without an attorney present.  Officers say this new law prevents them from obtaining necessary information on who organized the criminal activity and hampers their ability to prevent future crimes.  Because of this new law, gang leaders often recruit minors to commit offences because they know police are unable to obtain information from them if they are detained. Last weekend, an armed 12-year-old boy was among the juveniles arrested for stealing a minivan in Pierce County.  (MyNorthwest, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, CenterSquare, Walla Walla Union Bulletin, and KOMO News)

State Senator Jim McCune (R – Graham) condemned Governor Inslee and Democrat legislators for their lack of leadership to reduce the state’s exploding crime rate.  In a (Tacoma) News Tribune op-ed the Assistant Ranking Republican on the Senate’s Law and Justice Committee wrote that the “spike in crime is, to a large degree, a result of the legislative majority’s ‘soft on crime’ philosophy.”  Senator McCune described several recent Democrat measures on easing penalties, decriminalizing drug possession, and their “hostility towards law enforcement” for why our state is “topping national lists of trouble spots.”  He states “Rising crime rates are the sad but predictable result” of the Democrats’ actions.  The senator believes that unless corrective measures are soon passed, “public safety in Washington will continue to decline.” (News Tribune)

Even liberal radio talk show host Dave Ross believes Governor Inslee’s unilaterally imposed vaccine mandate has caused too much disruption for Washington State residents and has called on the governor to rehire many of the ferry workers who were released from their jobs because they refused to adhere to the politically motivated mandate.  Ross detailed how many residents are now stuck for hours on Puget Sound ferry docks due to canceled sailings (many unexpectedly occur at the last minute) because the vessels do not have enough Coast Guard certified crew members to safely cross Puget Sound.  132 ferry workers were seperated from their jobs last October because of the governor’s mandate on state workers and ferry officials have stated it could take another 18 months before enough workers receive the necessary certification for the ferry system to be fully staffed again.  Yet even Ross is doubtful the governor will do what is necessary because the current situation is “more about saving face than solving the problem.” (MyNorthwest and KIRO7 News)

The Seattle Times continues to do stellar work as the official denier of Democrat failed policies with its front page article today on why the state’s ferry system is currently incapable of keeping a reliable schedule and is leaving thousands of passengers waiting hours on its docks.  The story attempts to place the blame for the staff shortage on “an aging workforce” within the state’s ferry workers.  It isn’t until the 13^th paragraph of the story that the governor’s disastrous vaccine mandate, which caused 132 ferry workers to lose their jobs, is briefly mentioned.  BTW, if the aging workforce is the cause for the staff shortages (which it isn’t), then that too is a dramatic failure on the part of the Inslee Administration which should have known that many of its crew members were reaching retirement age and the state should have had recruits trained and certified to replace them.  Obviously the writer of the story is seeking to follow in the footsteps of former Seattle Times Reporter David Postman and former Yakima Herald writer Mike Faulk who have been rescued from their uncertain futures as a reporter to receive cushy high paying government jobs as spokesperson for the Inslee Administration.  Writing such nonsensical stories which attempt to cover up the serious policy failure of the governor’s is a good way to garner favorable attention within the Inslee Administration. (Seattle Times)

Teachers in the Kent School District voted overwhelmingly to conduct an illegal strike starting tomorrow (the district’s first day of school) unless school administrators meet their demands for even higher pay and smaller classrooms.  Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center posted a 2009 King County Superior Court ruling that found that a strike conducted that year by the Kent Education Association was illegal and ordered the teachers back to work.  If a strike does occur tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if current Kent School District administrators will seek a court order to force the teachers to abide to state law. (Seattle Times and 2009 King County Superior Court ruling)

The Northwest River Partners released three new 15 second ads promoting the clean energy production of hydro-electric dams.  The commercials feature talking electrical outlets with the tag line “our water is power” and stress the benefits of using hydropower compared to fossil fuels, which would increase if wealthy urban environmentalist are successful in removing the dams.  The ads coincides with the scheduled release of the unscientific partisan report on removing the four Snake River dams from Governor Jay Inslee and U.S. Senator Patty Murray which is late being delivered. The draft of the report was strongly criticized for only providing a limited perspective on the dams’ issue, for its methodology, and its incredible broad range for cost estimates ($10 billion to $27 billion) to replace the many benefits of the dams.  It also failed to take into account the strong run of salmon which are currently migrating upstream through the dams due to many improvements which have been made to fish ladders and conditions at the dams. (Northwest River Partner Ads Version 1, Version 2, and Version 3)

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