Democrats often claim they are the party of education, but as we’ve come to learn over the years in Washington State that’s an incomplete sentence. The reality is that the Democrats are just the party of education union interests, not the students.
The Democrats allegiance to the state teachers union has been well documented in Shift, here and here most recently.
The facts are clear – after 31 years of a Democrat governor signing every budget (since 1985), and that liberal party in charge of at least one house of the legislature for 29 of those years (and complete control in 14 of those years), our state is under a Supreme Court order issued in 2012 to adequately fund our public schools. And, most recently Democrats have used our public universities as piggy banks for the special interests that bankroll their campaigns, by jacking up tuition rates.
It’s only thanks to a bi-partisan Senate governing majority, which formed after the Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary ruling, that our schools have received unprecedented levels of additional funding over the last three years and college tuition rates were actually reduced over the objection of Jay Inslee and House Democrats this year.
Now comes news from the Seattle Times that reminds us yet again the price Washington State students have paid for Democrat control of the legislature: “according to federal data released Tuesday”, high school graduation rates are improving across the country, “but Washington beat only 12 other states and the District of Columbia” with an on-time graduation rate of 78%
That’s right, thanks to the Democrats, the so-called party of education, nearly a quarter of Washington high school students fail to graduate. And the liberals’ failure was across the board according to the report: “Washington also lagged behind the national average for every group of students sorted by race, income, disability and English proficiency.
“The state’s 2014 graduate rate for American Indians and Alaskan Natives of 57 percent, for example, was about 12 percentage points lower than the national average.”
The news must generate hearty congratulations in the offices of Jay Inslee, House Speaker Frank Chopp and the WEA, for their tireless efforts at putting the teachers union first, ahead of the needs of students, as in their most recent fight, to eliminate voter-approved public charter schools.
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