About Us

“A thoughtful, well-crafted new schools blog, Seattle Education 2010, raises questions about just what, exactly, city school leaders have in mind in the reassignment of students, schools and tax revenues. “ — Rick Anderson, the Daily Weekly (Seattle Weekly’s blog)

“…the fabulous Seattle based blog “Seattle Education 2010“…” — Norm Scott, Education Notes

“This was later confirmed by the Seattle Education 2010 blog (which is fantastic if you can keep up with super-long blog posts).” — An Urban Teacher’s Education blog

This blog represents a compilation of information that has been gathered over the last year by concerned parents and educators who are a part of the Seattle Public School system. Our goal is to have an informed public on issues that affect us in Seattle as it relates to public school education. -Dora Taylor, 2009

When we began our blog, we were collecting information from many sources and trying to piece together the reasons for what was happening in our school system in Seattle in 2008 and 2009. We discovered that what was happening in Seattle was reflective of what was an attempt on a national level to transform public education. Only then did the actions of our superintendent in terms of school closures and program changes begin to make sense. We began to make the connections between Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, the Broad Foundation and charter schools and how that involved the Gates Foundation and ultimately the Race to the Top reform movement led by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Our focus will still be to collect information regarding education and our goal will be to have an informed public on issues that affect us in Seattle in terms of education but it will now more consciously include looking at what is happening nationally and how that is affecting our public school system in Seattle.

Note: We have moved from our original website which we have a special attachment to, Seattle Education 2010, because the information that we have accumulated no longer fits within that format.

sue-peters

Sue Peters:

Founding Member: Parents Across America
School Board Director: Seattle Public Schools, 2014-2018
Journalist

Dora Taylor:

Founding Member and President of Parents Across America
Contributor to two books:
Digital Networking for School Reform and
Left Behind in the Race to the Top: Realities of Education Reform
The Progressive Magazine Education Fellow
League of Women Voters King County Education Committee
Architect

In 2015, we added an additional co-editor to the blog, Carolyn Leith.

Carolyn is a parent of two students attending Seattle Public Schools, an advocate for public education and on the Steering Committee of Parents Across America, Puget Sound.

Our Declaration of Support for Public Schools

In the current national discussion about education reform, the loudest voices are not necessarily those of the people who are directly affected by what happens in our schools – the students, parents, teachers and school communities themselves.

We are parents with children in public schools. These are our kids, their teachers, our schools. And we would like to be heard.

What’s more, the message coming from the current league of reformers is largely negative, much talk about what’s wrong with our schools, but little discussion of what public schools and teachers are doing right, and what they could do even better if given full support.

Can our public schools be improved? Absolutely. But that begins with fully funding our schools and believing they can work.

We believe they can, when given the chance.

We also believe that too many of the latest proposed education reforms are too punitive and are not changes for the better.

We believe there are valuable aspects of public education worth preserving and supporting, beginning with the very principle itself, free public education for every child in the country. We believe this has always been a noble goal and one that we’re not willing to give up on.

So we have created a Declaration of Support for Public Schools.

We invite others across the nation who share our vision for public education to sign on to our statement, to send a message to the president, education secretary and school district officials throughout the country.

The message is simple:

Let’s fix what’s broken, but don’t break what isn’t.

And do not impose detrimental changes on our schools and children in the name of “reform.