Monday: Along with a diverse group of supporters, we announced sending a letter to the governor and legislature urging them to pass key reforms in basic education necessary for Washington to compete for education stimulus funds. Publicola has a great take, check it out.

Tuesday: The Washington Education Association (WEA) responds with a letter of their own stating, “Washington does not need to pass legislation this session to assure receipt of the ARRA stabilization funds” and “In two years there will be no stimulus money, just a deep funding hole to be filled.”

Wednesday: We respond to the WEA letter’s mischaracterization of the stimulus and its intent with a follow-up letter to the governor and legislature, stating “Our goal this session should be to do everything we can to improve our education system and position Washington to be competitive for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds—not to do as little as possible or to defend the status-quo.”

Today: The Senate is set to debate on the basic education finance bill this morning (ESSB 2261). The session started at 10:30 a.m. and the bill is scheduled to come up during the morning session. You can view it online through TVW. Anything could happen, so stay tuned.

Tommorrow: Is Friday. Thank goodness.

Theme of the Week: Given our state’s $9 billion deficit, we cannot afford to leave federal money on the table. And, given that slightly less than 50 percent of our 10th graders meet state standards in math, we cannot afford to walk away from an opportunity to boldly enact new reforms.

Update: If you think Washington is the only state that will need to make crucial education reforms in order to be competitive for stimulus funds, check out this article from the Chicago Tribune, in which Arne Duncan warns: "I would love to see Illinois compete, but Illinois has to change its behavior." The writing is on the wall.