In the Media
Senate Democratic leaders laid out a partisan budget plan Tuesday that spares public schools and universities from new spending cuts and, like the House Democrats’ offering last week, avoids a tax referendum.
On Valentine’s Day, some people scurried up and down Colorado Avenue, making last-minute preparations for an evening with a sweetheart. Not 19-year-old Jerry Mark, a Telluride local attending school at Western Washington University.
He was standing in the wind and fog at the top of Crystal Mountain’s 7,012-foot Silver King face. His goal: To drop 1,000 feet through a series of cliffs and rocky chutes as quickly as possible, and with more style and grace than all the other competitors.
John Boyd got his degree in Spanish from the University of Montana in 1987 after a four-year career in Grizzly basketball.
Little did he know at the time how valuable the degree would be to him.
For the past few months Boyd has been immersed in his new position as executive director for K-12 schools in the Highline Public Schools system south of Seattle, Wash.
“I support 13 different schools (elementary through high school),” Boyd said. “I evaluate the principals and provide support when they need it beyond what they’re doing in their buildings, and I’m also in charge of athletics in the district, so I have an athletic director who reports to me as well.”
With bipartisanship out of political reach, Senate Democrats today unveiled a plan to rebalance the state budget without relying on higher taxes or carving any more dollars from public schools and colleges.
Their proposal, put forth without buy-in of any Republicans, erases a projected deficit mostly with a blend of cuts in spending in most state agencies, closing a couple of small tax breaks and putting off a payment to school districts until the next budget cycle.
As proposed, the Senate Democrats scheme would fill a $500 million shortfall in the budget that runs through mid-2013 and establish a reserve of $369 million.
Senate Democrats will propose a budget Tuesday that spares K-12 and higher education from additional cuts, Senate Ways and Means Chairman Ed Murray said Monday.
The budget also won't suggest asking voters to approve a sales-tax increase. Murray said such a tax proposal is "highly unlikely" this session.
Those were the only details Murray would divulge. He would not discuss cuts, or whether his budget would delay certain K-12 payments, which House Democrats included in their budget proposal last week.
As Washington State’s public colleges and universities face a quiet crisis created by a massive state divestment in higher education over the last few years, our long-term economic future as a state is being put in serious jeopardy. This path of state disinvestment is compromising access, raising class sizes, reducing course offerings, and creating serious hardships across Washington State for students and their families, particularly those of more modest means.
This downward slide needs to be stopped, and stopped quickly. As the state’s grim budget situation has eased somewhat due to the combination of a significantly reduced caseload forecast and a slightly improved revenue projection, the time has come for elected officials in Olympia to draw a line in the sand: no more cuts to higher education.
Still blurry from a night of what a football referee might call excessive celebration, the makers of the Oscar-winning sports documentary "Undefeated" on Monday made a point of doing what they failed to do on national television when they claimed their golden statuettes:
They thanked Memphis and Manassas High School.
Western Washington University's Emily Warman has been named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Female of the Week for Feb. 19-25.
A junior, Warman improved her NCAA Division II provisional national qualifying mark in winning the women's long jump at the Seattle Pacific University Last Chance meet Saturday.
Western Washington University's Brad Jackson was voted Coach of the Year on the 2011-12 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball all-star team announced on Monday, Feb. 27.
Vikings forward Rory Blanche was a unanimous first-team pick. Guard John Allen earned second-team honors for the second straight year and receiving honorable mention was guard Richard Woodworth.
Western Washington University women's basketball forward Kristin Schramm has been named Great Northwest Athletic Conference co-Player of the Week for Feb. 19-25.
A 5-foot-9 senior, Schramm helped the Vikings to road wins over Seattle Pacific, 72-62, and Montana State Billings, 74-68. She had 26 points against MSUB, 13 in the final eight minutes.