Wall Street Journal Takes Notice of Washington's NMSI Debacle--Our State Takes A Called Strike Three!

How many times do you get an opportunity of a life time to hit a walk off homer to win the deciding game of the World Series?  Kids dream about it over and over, but few players ever have the chance to step into the batters box in this rare situation. 

Picture this, your team is behind by three runs and it is the bottom of the 9th inning in the 7th and deciding game of the Series.  The bases are loaded and there are two outs. The count is three balls, two strikes.  The hometown fans are going crazy and millions around the world are glued to their television sets.  The noise is unbearable and you are happy your third-base coach flashes you the signs rather than trying to yell instructions to you. A grand slam not only wins the game and championship, but paves your way to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown! You can be the hero of all time--the World Series MVP!

You get the green light to swing away, but you simply watch a home-run pitch come straight across the middle of the plate and YOU are called out on strikes.  You end up the goat and booed because you didn't even take a cut at the pitch.  As much as you'd like to have another chance, the opportunity is gone forever.

Well, that is exactly what happened in Washington State when we watch the $13.2 million National Math and Science Institute (NMSI) vanish in thin air because the Washington Education Association (WEA) tubed a grant which would reward students and teachers for passing advanced placement tests in math and science and would help teachers teach those two subjects. It was a gift to seven states including Washington, but only our state stood there and took a CALLED STRIKE THREE! Even heavily unionized states like Connecticut and Massachusetts took the pitch and blasted a homer and as much as educators and political leaders want another chance at the grant, it is gone!

In Connecticut, Dr. Cam Vautour, a long-time public school superintendent, saw the NMSI grants as a once in a lifetime opportunity. He went to 10 local school districts and got nine of the school administrators and unions to take the grants.  "We kept the state teachers union out of it and simple told the local districts the NMSI grant was NOT negotiable.  It is take it or leave it!"  Nine of 10 local districts took the NMSI grants.  In Washington, we were ZERO FOR SEVEN!   

I've written editorials on the debacle. Many other newspapers have as well.  This morning, The Wall Street Journal  (WSJ) weighed in. WSJ was particularly biting in its criticism of WEA torpedoing the NMSI grant which it reports was started by Washington's own Bill and Melinda Gates.

"They (WEA) were willing to turn away free money for their teacher members rather than abide this kind of merit pay....and while the Washington union is spurning millions of dollars in grant money, it's also suing the state for the alleged inadequate funding of public schools.  Hmmm.  Could it be that union chiefs care more about protecting their monopoly than what students are learning?"

This is a golden missed opportunity and while our state is the goat, it is our children and our future that took a called "STRIKE THREE!"

Don C. Brunell, President (DonB@awb.org)