Outstanding theft case of felon who killed police officer Beth Nowak was not seen as a priority (but this was a priority)
"Bergeson offers plan for better schools" (hint: it includes a pay raise)
"New state windfall of $57 million may benefit health care, schools" (I sense another tax increase coming: 'times are good, we can afford it!')
What about the liberals' battle cry "buck stops here" and "impeach (insert name)" and "anybody but (name)?"
Most CEO's in business would have been canned or left after repeated dismal results like depressed stock price or--in schoos' cases--poor stakeholder's results.
"Deflector shields up, Mr. Sulu!"
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on November 17, 2006 11:40 AMAccording to The Times Kelley "sped through a parking lot and headed straight for an officer, the reports said." Attempted vehicular assault of an officer. Six cars prowled. Possession of stolen property. Yet "He was arrested but was released because state law does not allow a person to be held in jail longer than 72 hours if charges aren't filed."
Kelley's history, parole status, and crimes on July 26 didn't warrant immediate prosecutorial action? Regardless what the SPD spokeswoman says and Maleng's spokesman says the ball was dropped. It was not only dropped but it was punctured and lost.
The inactions of SPD, the King County Prosecutor's Office, and the state parole office are inexcusable and unacceptable. Citizens of Seattle, King County and the State of Washington deserve better than to always hear "Over-worked, under-staffed, and under-funded."
Given SPD's latest press release of their elaborate prostitution sting the department seems to have resources to do what they want - when they want, without concern for the alleged "over & under" obstacles.
At the least, put the money away for another, leaner year. Don't use it to create more programs that will have to be paid for even in lean years!
Posted by: My Boaz's Ruth on November 17, 2006 12:03 PMIf Gregoire's smart, she'll triangulate like crazy against Chopp and Prentice. 'Cause if she signs off on the Legislature's big ticket projects, Dino will whip her fair-and-square next time around. In fact, judging from the last election, I'm afraid that's the only way Dino could beat her.
And Chris Gregoire is smart. For the sake of all of us, that's the only hope I've got.
Posted by: DJ on November 17, 2006 12:11 PMHmm, maybe if we put these people in prison where they belong instead of letting them back out on the street the police and lawyers wouldn't be so overworked dealing with the same criminals repeatedly.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on November 17, 2006 12:40 PMDon't need to schooling to get by.
Let's continue the lie about our taxes being so high so we can have 5 hour commutes and schools ranked in the bottom 10% of the country.
Good plan.
Posted by: Jack Tremaine on November 17, 2006 12:42 PMApparently.
Posted by: Palouse on November 17, 2006 12:45 PMOr maybe it has absolutly nothing to do with spending on education, but where in education we spend the money. Unions are NOT the place to spend the money. Standards are, but the union complains that we should expect teachers to pass tests, but the teachers expect the kids they teach to pass test. The familiar D 'Do as I say, not as I do' garbage.
Posted by: Right said Fred on November 17, 2006 12:52 PMTry again
Posted by: Jack Tremaine on November 17, 2006 12:55 PMOur taxes are NOT among the highest in the coutnry. I know. I've lived in 10 states and these taxes are by far the LOWEST I've ever paid.
But, whine and lie. Enjoy the 5 hour congestions (see today's Seattle Times) andl low ranked schools. Feel good with your lie.
The good news is that people who repeat such lies so often get figured out -- and get kicked out. This is the reason the republicans were shown the door en masse. The lies only work for a while.
Posted by: Jack Tremaine on November 17, 2006 01:02 PMHiring a good lawyer can keep you out of prison (*cough* OJ). Likely what happened here. Good lawyer + promise of drug counseling / rehab would likely set him free. He broke his parole, cops get RUSH cases, put him off as not-important as he's not a violent offender.
Which would you rather have on the street Bill? The guy who raped someone at gunpoint or the guy who has a history of car prowls? Given the choice of bringing in one or the other, the police prioritize.
Posted by: Cato on November 17, 2006 01:03 PMFor over 30 years, we have heard the same mantra - "Our schools are under-funded", "We need more money" - what's the number? 15,000 per student? $20,000? $30,000? What is the number that will get us to where we need to be in education?
If we raise per student spending by 50% will they score in the top 10% of all students nationwide?
How about class size? What's the right size? 1:20? 1:15? 1:1? We've heard that mantra for more than 30 years as well.
If it is agreed that 1:15 is the right number, and it is funded, are we going to be guaranteed that our children will be in the top 10% of all students nationwide?
The education of our children is important and we should spend money to make it so, but after more than 30 years of fogginess, I want to know what will solve the issue - now, not in 20 years after more pilot courses are tried. We have had 30 years of experimentation and the time is up.
How much?
Gates has it right. But he doesn't say pull back the money. Instead he INVESTS with his foundation. He says "change things" to make them better.
He doesn't lie about the need to invest...he MAKES HIS FUTURE CAREER all about that.
Posted by: Jack Tremaine on November 17, 2006 01:05 PM1. Accountability - he wants outcomes when schools and teachers are failing. Right now, the union monopoly means that teachers or administrators cannot be fired. There is no consequence for a school whose students continually under perform. All we hear is that they need more money. Institute accountability to the taxpayers, not the unions. Doesn't cost a dime.
2. Standards - he wants 4 years of math and science to graduate, we only require 2. Doesn't cost a dime. The unions have fought the WASL every step of the way because it actually establishes some standards. We need more standards, not less.
3. Alternatives - the KIPP program he wants to invest in this state cannot because of the union monopoly. Change the rules, and it allows him to do it, without a cost to taxpayers. If it works, THEN people might approve tax money to fund more programs like it, but they cannot.
Posted by: Palouse on November 17, 2006 01:22 PM"Which would you rather have on the street Bill? The guy who raped someone at gunpoint or the guy who has a history of car prowls? Given the choice of bringing in one or the other, the police prioritize."
Earlier you talked about the man being represented by an "overworked govt. lawyer", now you say he was able to hire an expensive attorney? Oh please.
As I said before, put these people in prison and you wouldn't have the revolving door syndrome that puts all decent citizens at the mercy of criminals.
Indigent or not he still had money to buy an engagement ring as part of his personal quest for a life changing process. Or maybe he "found" that ring. Better yet, maybe some guy he didn't know walked up to him and gave him the ring.
No, I'm talking about the overworked Govt. Prosecutor (aka the good guy), not the cop-killers lawyer (aka the guy who got cop-killer off).
If you bothered to read the articles you'd see that the cops are busy and appear to be targeting bigger threats than this guy. The cop-killer got off and then got unlucky enough to drive his car into an off-duty cop.
Maybe a better solution would be to hire more cops so there are less potential cop-killers roaming the streets.
Posted by: Cato on November 17, 2006 01:57 PMSeattle really hasn't seen much change from the days of Norm Stamper as chief of police. Perhaps more melodrama and theatrics with its current chief but no real change.
Good police departments and prosecutors' offices rise to the task regardless of workloads, budgets, personnel, or equipment "problems and shortages." They don't blame judges, laws, and legislators. They get the job done without whining.
Posted by: Tyler Durden on November 17, 2006 02:13 PMOr, maybe a better solution is to use those officers who are busting people for having sex with people on Craiglist or handing out jaywalking tickets or trolling the strip clubs looking for customers "breaking the law", out on the street looking for potential cop-killers.
Posted by: Palouse on November 17, 2006 02:14 PMAll this talk of rapists and car theives and education is secondary. We need funding for more yardsticks for the police! Seattle probably ranks last among all large cities in police measuring devices.
We don't need no stinkin jails (roads, schools, etc.) We need more tape measures!! Thank you.
Posted by: Steve on November 17, 2006 02:15 PMThe Tax Foundation ranks Washington 4th, behind only CT, NY & NJ. Lower taxed, NOT!
As you know, much of that goes to education. Past state rankings of the ratio of expenditures to teachers vs. administration put this state in the middle at about 51%. Some priorities.
At great sacrifice, my children are in private school instead of the last-ranked Highline School district disaster.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen on November 17, 2006 02:39 PMOf course most people here just take Stefan's version of the facts without actually looking a little deeper to see the actual reality of the situation.
I get that Cato. It's called less vice, mo' criminal roundup. Somewhere in that police department thingy there's someone whose in charge of personnel, surely.
Posted by: Palouse on November 17, 2006 03:01 PMMost definitely. And in SPD there's someone who's decided the department needs one of the highest ratios of non-sworn officer types (clerks, "technicians," feel-good jobs) than similar and even much larger departments in the nation. Departments that have lower crime statistics with the same or lower ratios of officers to citizens than SPD.
Oh, and as far as "technicians" those aren't the kind as seen on CSI who mysteriously wear guns and amazingly solve crimes in minutes.
But lets all get something straight... He SHOULD HAVE NEEEEVVVER been release from prison in January.Let alone again release in July of this year after being caught in another stolen car!!! The system failed Officer Nowak, Neal Kelly and All of us!!
His probation officer was told over 6 months ago that he was using Drugs again and falling back into old habits to pay for his drug habit! WHY WAS NOTHING DONE??? When he was arrested in July 2006 for being caught in yet another stolen car while high off drugs, WHY WAS HE PROBATION NOT REVOKED THEN???? WHY WAS HE EVERY RELEASED???
Neal Kelley is soley to blame for his wrong decisions and him killing a innocent person on the way to work who just happened to be a police officer! ( I as well as all his family/friends are truly sorry!! We all wish he would have only killed himself!)
To be quite honest I am glad that this story is receiving as much press as it is!!! Even with me being a long time friend of Neal Kelley's who tried everything in her power to get him clean, before having no other choice except to walk away because I knew he was killing himself and damaging his family/kids and others in the process! I HOPE THE COUNTY WILL WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE MISTAKES THEY CONTINUED TO MAKE WITH NEAL KELLEY!
Neal may have driven the car that killed Officer Nowak. But the KING COUNTY JAIL SYSTEM GAVE HIM THE POWER!!! ( HE should have NEVER been released )
WE ALL MUST BE A LOUD VOICE TO MAKE SURE THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!!!!
Laws need to be changed, Stricter penalties put in place!! As for that DOSA program I asure all of you it was a bunch of BULLS**T and so far in my opinion a waste of money if they will not follow up with the inmate's who they had knowledge had fallen back to their old ways again!
Posted by The system FAILED
Too often such postings have a ring to them. A familiar and similar ring with their metaphor and message. Like the email attachments we often see such as A Message From A Soldier In Iraq I wonder how many of the postings from friends or relatives would pass the Snopes.com test?
""I'm more convinced than ever before that we are on the right path, at the right time, and we are the right people,"
Then she said in the same article, one paragraph down:
"A four-step "course correction" is needed to improve schools," [Bergeson] said.
so, if youre on the right path, why is a "course correction" necessary?????
NO MORE MONEY FOR FAILED POLICIES.
And Gregoire needs to be booted as well. Those two are buddies and have conspired to keep the union afloat, and the kids are waaaay down their priority list.
Posted by: Lauri on November 18, 2006 09:19 PM""I'm more convinced than ever before that we are on the right path, at the right time, and we are the right people,"
Then she said in the same article, one paragraph down:
"A four-step "course correction" is needed to improve schools," [Bergeson] said.
so, if youre on the right path, why is a "course correction" necessary?????
NO MORE MONEY FOR FAILED POLICIES.
And Gregoire needs to be booted as well. Those two are buddies and have conspired to keep the union afloat, and the kids are waaaay down their priority list.
Posted by: Lauri on November 18, 2006 09:19 PMWe should demand results. Her bureaucracy demands only its contunied survival. When will voters and taxpayers wake up? Other states' & countries' students are leaving us in the dust.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on November 19, 2006 09:00 AMWith super majorities in the hands of the Democrats 601 spending limits are DOA. The current surplus will be used to establish programs that will require sustainable funding, even though none currently exists.
The ONLY way an Income tax will work is if it is imposed like the B&0 tax is, from dollar one with no exemptions, including social relief payments. That way even the least able to pay will become motivated to ensure that government is run in an efficient manner.
Posted by: Smokie on November 19, 2006 09:29 AMAnybody stop to ask this question with regard to the special education lawsuit by the 12 school districts? When OSPI learned of the lawsuit (OSPI had plenty of advanced notice that this was being planned), why didn't OSPI immediately order a perfomance audit or a program expenditure audit of all these districts (or even just a few of them), instead of asking the legislature for an extra $1 million dollars to pay the AG's office to fend off the suit? OSPI has the power to do it (always has, via state law) and now has even more power with the passage of I-900.
And never think that paying teachers more is going to get you better quality. This will only work if districts can hire and fire based upon perfomance, because currently the teaching profession is not based upon uniform teaching standards, nor is teaching a "profession" in the way engineering, medicine or even welding is. Unlike other professions, standards of teaching are not based on time-proven methods that have proven effective, there are no "industry standards", and the minimal requirements that exist for teaching are most often left up to the whim of the colleges of education. Combine that with the fact that school boards and administrators dictate the curriculua from everything to the texts being used down to ever changing fads of instruction, that teachers learn almost all of their applied skills "on the job", and what you end up with is a recipe for educational malpractice with our kids. No way would we settle for a system like this in any other "profession" -- but it is standard practice in K-12 education.
More money for education without first thoroughly scrutinizing what is happening in education would be fiscal folly. We have to stop thinking of public education and the people who run it as some sacrosant institution above scrutiny and criticism, where all who run it must be virtuous beings because of the low pay they receive for their noble efforts.
Posted by: Spedvet on November 23, 2006 08:06 PM