Dick Rylander provides an analysis of the Battle Ground School District’s November 2026 EP&O Levy Dick Rylander for Clark County Today This article is my analysis based on my research and interpretations. It contains a significant amount of detail and numbers. As such, if you need clarifications please reach out to someone whose opinion you trust and ask for their assistance. Every attempt has been made to be accurate and, in the case of projections or estimates, to incorporate information gleaned from conversations. If there are factual errors please notify me. On Thursday July 16, 2026 the BGSD Superintendent (Shelly Whitten) presented a levy proposal to the School Board … [Read more...]
Goodhart’s Law Explains Education Decay
An article from Intellectual Takeout: https://intellectualtakeout.org/2023/01/goodharts-law-education-decay/ Everywhere in education, you see incentives at work. The incentives, though, are so far removed from the actual goals of education that they produce perverse results. Goodhart’s Law is usually stated, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Economics textbooks often use the allegory of a maker of nails, who receives word that his measure of success at producing nails will be based on the number of nails made. He retools his factory, adjusts his resource use, and produces as many nails as possible, even though many are too thin, or small, or bent … [Read more...]
Fully funding K-12 education is a pipe dream
We hear all sorts of comments about the need to “fully fund” K-12 education. It’s a pipe dream and fantasy. Why? Read on… The state's funding formula for K-12 education is called the Prototypical School Funding Model. The Washington State Basic Education Act of 1977 originated the funding model and outlines the definition of Basic Education in public schools. This model determines the base amount of funding each district receives per student based on a fixed theoretical school size enrollment. The model establishes minimum staff-to-student ratios for various positions such as principals, teachers, custodians, nurses, and more. The funding received by school districts based on this model … [Read more...]
Micro Schools vs Public Schools
What are “Micro Schools”? How do “Micro Schools” compare to public schools? Are "Micro Schools" better than public or charter schools? Today we embark on an examination of an alternative to public schools. You decide if it’s what you want. The following information is based on searches. Citations and links are at the end of the article. Micro schools and public schools are two distinct educational models that cater to different needs and preferences. Here are some key differences between the two: Class Size: Micro schools typically have smaller class sizes, ranging from 5-20 students, whereas public schools have larger class sizes, often with 20-30 students or more. … [Read more...]
Make Education Great Again!
The article was published at Real Clear Wire. By Adam Ellwanger Imagine these words as the first speech delivered by the incoming Secretary of Education. Today, I am here to deliver bitter medicine: American education has failed. Teachers and parents, administrators and government—and even students—all bear some responsibility. The most common explanations for our educational crisis are inadequate funding, overuse of standardized testing, and systemic prejudice. They are false. Our schools do not lack funding—no country spends more on public education. The poor results of standardized tests indicate our failures; they are not the cause. Our schools are not … [Read more...]
The Coming of K–12 School Choice Will Also Change Higher Education
What impact will/does "school choice" or "vouchers" have on K-12 education? The article we bring you today from The American Conservative takes out the crystal ball for a look... Ever since June of 2022, when Arizona became the first state to legalize universal school choice, the adoption of this K–12th grade reform has accelerated beyond even its longtime boosters’ wildest dreams. Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, and West Virginia have all enacted policies that fund families to educate their kids, not just at the local public school, but at a private school, a homeschool, an online academy, a tutoring service, or a parent-run … [Read more...]
Public vs. Private K-12 education cost review July 2023
As parents finish a school year and vaguely think about the Fall we thought it might be helpful to pull some information together about cost of public vs private schools. What follows is the most current data varying from 2021 up through 2023. For the 2023 school year, there are 39 private schools serving 5,466 students in Clark County, WA (there are 145 public schools, serving 75,243 public students). 7% of all K-12 students in Clark County, WA are educated in private schools (compared to the WA state average of 9%). As we closed out the 2022/23 school year the private school tuition costs were about $9,585. Public school cost numbers may vary depending on the source. The State of … [Read more...]
The Sabotage of Public Education
From an article published at American Thinker written by https://www.americanthinker.com/author/bruce_deitrick_price/ Genuine rigorous testing of educational ideas is rare in America. Why? Because practical testing usually goes against what the professors want to do. Their impractical ideas don't perform well in the real world. For example, Operation Follow-Through was the biggest, most systematic testing in American education, continuing for ten years, 1967 to 1977. This research showed absolutely that common sense, often called Direct Instruction, works best. Quite simply, that's where a teacher teaches, and students learn. Honest educators would say, okay, that's what … [Read more...]
Deepfake teachers & technology: the future of K-12 public education?
Ready to glimpse the future of K-12 public education? Put your walking shoes on and check your skepticism at the door and enter the looking glass with me... The future of K-12 public education is...Deepfake teachers. First what the heck is "deepfake"? Definition: "an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said" "Deepfake (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") is a technique for human image synthesis based on artificial intelligence(A.I). It is used to combine and superimpose (Photoshop/Edit) existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a … [Read more...]
Are kids (and adults) at risk going back to physical school?
Are kids susceptible to Covid at a lower, the same or higher rate? Can the children be a source to spread Covid even if they don't get sick or show obvious signs of infection? Lots of questions and yet few answers. We came across the following article titled: Coronavirus Testing In New York City Schools Yield Not-So-Surprising Results written by Jeff Charles that we would like to share. Click the title of the article to open a link to the original. Give it a read and what say you? New York City reopened its schools three weeks ago and found extremely low rates of coronavirus infections among students. This finding flies in the face of fearmongers trying to scare people into keeping … [Read more...]
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