Washington's leaders flunk the higher education test

Lawmakers will rightly focus this session on shielding Washington’s public schools from the worst gales of the fiscal hurricane howling through the state.

But education doesn’t end with the 12th grade. The most lavishly funded K-12 system can’t guarantee students a future if there’s no place for them to go once they graduate from high school. The 21st century’s tech-intensive economy demands workers with technical, associate and bachelor’s degrees – and punishes job-seekers who don’t have them.