Governor Vetos Portion of Budget Bill for Tax Breaks
Washington's Paramount Duty statement:
We are overjoyed that Governor Inslee has chosen funding for public schools over a secretly negotiated big tax break for corporations. Washington's Paramount Duty wrote to the governor and urged parents to call and email him asking him to veto this tax cut. We thank him for listening to the voices of parents across the state, rather than the wealthy special interests. We agree with him that this was a question of fairness, and we are pleased he answered it correctly.
This is only the beginning of our work to fully and amply fund our public schools by limiting corporate tax loopholes. Legislators have estimated there could be as much as $31 billion in tax breaks handed out by Washington State every year, more than almost any other state. Those corporate loopholes represent a potentially significant source of revenue to help finish the job and provide every child in Washington State with the great education they have a right to under our state's constitution.
Conversation on HCC - Part One
Let's talk about giftedness first. (Note that this thread is not about HCC so any comments about it will be deleted. I will once again state that no one will be allowed to name-call or sneer at someone's children.)
To start, after decades of thinking about this issue, here are some conclusions I have come to about how some parents think about giftedness.
Let's just start with the idea that ALL children have gifts to share - leadership, empathy, artistry, humor - many good things. But...
-You can have a child who is musically or athletically gifted and people don't blink but, say your child is academically gifted, and it is as if you are saying your child is better than other children. I don't know why that is but people get very defensive, almost as if they believe that if someone says their child is gifted, that means you are saying their child is dumb. Not true but that seems to be a sometimes reaction.
- There are those who think there are only profoundly gifted people and the rest are just "bright", "had help/advantages" and "will be all right, no matter what."
-Many people believe there are gifted students but some of those also believe those students do not need/deserve a separate classroom. There are many reasons for that.
To start, after decades of thinking about this issue, here are some conclusions I have come to about how some parents think about giftedness.
Let's just start with the idea that ALL children have gifts to share - leadership, empathy, artistry, humor - many good things. But...
-You can have a child who is musically or athletically gifted and people don't blink but, say your child is academically gifted, and it is as if you are saying your child is better than other children. I don't know why that is but people get very defensive, almost as if they believe that if someone says their child is gifted, that means you are saying their child is dumb. Not true but that seems to be a sometimes reaction.
- There are those who think there are only profoundly gifted people and the rest are just "bright", "had help/advantages" and "will be all right, no matter what."
-Many people believe there are gifted students but some of those also believe those students do not need/deserve a separate classroom. There are many reasons for that.
- They will not be socialized properly by not being with many types of students. At my sons' elementary schools, they took half the grade-level Gen Ed classrooms and matched them with the gifted Conversation on HCC - Part One