Ann Telnaes was right!
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have shown their true colors. And they are ugly and pathetic.
History will not remember them well. Their legacies will be that of venal, self-serving cowardice.
Ann Telnaes was right!
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have shown their true colors. And they are ugly and pathetic.
History will not remember them well. Their legacies will be that of venal, self-serving cowardice.
The Seattle School Board has lost one of its most dedicated and best directors, with the announcement of the resignation of District IV Director Eden Mack last week. (Her full statement can be found in the report by KUOW.)
Today at 3:30 pm, at their regular board meeting, the remaining members of the Seattle School Board will address this new vacancy. I sincerely hope they take the time tonight to both recognize and applaud Director Mack’s service and begin to address the serious issues that compelled her to leave 10 months shy of the end of her term.
I agree with Eden’s sentiments that the dysfunction that plagues the Seattle School District, the largest in the state, is deeply entrenched and must be addressed if this district is ever to properly serve the 50,000-plus students in its care. Until that happens, Seattle Public Schools will continue to lose dedicated directors like Eden Mack, and students and families will continue to suffer or endure rather than thrive.
I thank Eden for her intelligence, grace and integrity in a very difficult, underappreciated and under-resourced job, and wish her well in her next endeavor. I knew she would be a wonderful addition to the board when she took over my seat in 2017, and I know she will be hard to replace.

I agree with her sentiments in her resignation letter that the problems that plagued SPS are deep and urgently need to be addressed if this, the largest district in the state, is ever to fulfill its obligation to truly serve the 50,000-plus students in Seattle’s public schools.



“State Rep. Maralyn Chase (…) has been a dedicated liberal voice in the legislature for the past 16 years, fighting to double the estate tax to pay for student aid; pushing legislation to give local governments the ability to place a cap on condo conversions; and proposing quixotic (but righteous) environmental legislation, including a ban on petroleum-based plastic water bottles; a carbon tax; a ban on plastic bags, and a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.
Chase’s unabashed liberalism (she testified in support of impeaching George Bush) will be a nice jolt to the Senate caucus, where proposals such as an effort to end big bank tax loopholes died last session.
(…) People laugh at her for being a crazy lefty, but two years after Chase introduced a global warming bill, Gregoire introduced it herself.”
— PubliCola endorsement of Chase when she first ran for State Senate in 2010
Thank you to all the community activists who contributed to this list. – Sue Peters
Don’t miss Diane Ravitch at U.W.’s Kane Hall tomorrow at 7 p.m!
The former U.S. Undersecretary of Education is currently touring the country with her new book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools (Knopf, 2013) and will speak in Seattle on Thursday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m., at Kane Hall, Room 130, University of Washington, (206) 634-3400. Free.
Her previous book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic Books, 2011) was a widely acclaimed bestseller.
An education historian and professor at New York University, Ravitch served in the Department Education in both the Bush I and the Clinton Administration. She has since become a foremost national authority on public education and a powerful critic of controversial “corporate ed reform” policies that emphasize charter schools, high-stakes testing and teacher evaluations based on standardized test scores.
In August, Dr. Ravitch’s national organization, Network for Public Education, strongly endorsed my candidacy. She has also written about my School Board race on her blog (Seattle: Status Quo Crowd Fears Sue Peters) and tweeted: “Help elect Sue Peters to Seattle School Board, a champion of public education.”
I am thrilled and honored to have Dr. Ravitch’s support. I greatly respect the years of experience and research she has dedicated to public education, and I have drawn many of the same conclusions she has. Privatizing public education via charter schools, excessive testing, and blaming teachers are failed policies that have done great damage to our schools and the morale of our students and teachers.
Instead, I support an investment in rich, engaging curriculum for all students, not excessive testing; respect and support for teachers, and keeping public education public.
As a founding member of Parents Across America (PAA), in Feb. 2011, I had the honor of speaking and sharing a panel with Ravitch at the organization’s kickoff event in New York City. In the fall of 2010, I emceed a forum at Seattle University featuring Ravitch via Skype, educators and public education advocates Dr. Wayne Au, Jesse Hagopian and Dora Taylor, sponsored by the Seattle Education Blog.
from Diane Ravitch’s blog:
Seattle just held its local elections, and Sue Peters won a spot in a run-off election for the Seattle school board. She won 41% of the vote, despite being vastly outspent, and her opponent won 47%.
Sue wrote the following letter, thanking the Network for Public Education for providing its endorsement, which identified her as the real education supporter.
Please send her support if you can. Her website is here. I just made a contribution via Paypal.
I thought that readers would want to read her description of her vision for the Seattle public schools:
I just wanted to extend my deepest thanks to you and NPE for the timely and meaningful endorsement of my candidacy. It came at a crucial time, right when my opponent’s side chose to go negative (twice!), and as we led up to the primary election.
Diane, thank you for your tweet on my behalf as well.
Locally, people are very impressed by this honor and support, and nationally I have received a constant flow of donations ever since the endorsement and tweet.
And here’s more good news: Last night I qualified for the general election, earning 41 percent of the vote so far (with 50 percent of ballots counted). (My opponent is at 47 percent at the moment.) This is despite being outspent 6-1, without hiring political consultants, and without resorting to smear tactics against my opponent. I am proud of my authentic, community-based campaign which has focused on the issues and maintained its integrity. I am confident that my positive and constructive message, and the value of my nearly decade of knowledge of the Seattle Public School District, will resonate with voters throughout the city as we go forth into the general election.
Here is what I support:
Thank you all again.
Best,
Sue

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