Some parents just won't take no for an answer, particularly when it's their children's education at stake. Dissatisfied with a Jan. 29 school board vote to close five schools and move or eliminate another eight programs -- most serving minority and low-income children -- Educators, Students and Parents for Better Visions of Seattle Schools plans to take the matter up with the feds.
On Thursday, Feb. 26, starting at noon, the group plans to march from the Central District's Garfield High School to a 1:30 p.m. rally at the Federal Building, where parents plan to file discrimination grievance forms at the offices of the Department of Education. The grievances should trigger an investigation, says ESP Vision organizer Jesse Hagopian, because "in looking at the school closure plan and who it targeted, we unquestionably have a case around race."
Third-party shuffle
Most voters would like greater choice in political parties, says the Progressive Party's Linde Knighton. But if a Senate bill that's already made it through a committee vote were to pass, it would become harder for a group to qualify as a minor party, let alone a major one, she says.
Senate Bill 5681, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, updates election laws pertaining to the state's top-two primary. But Knighton says the bill also rewrites current party definitions.
To qualify as a major party under the bill, a group would have to capture 1 percent of the state's vote in the last presidential race, which conveniently rules out third parties like the Progressives, she says, that don't run a national slate of candidates. "If we won all the offices in the state," Knighton says wryly, "we still wouldn't be considered a major party."