I have now spent a few weeks in Massachusetts and I think it will be interesting to do a little comparison between Massachusetts and Washington. Both have approximately the same 6.6 million populations, both have dominant cities that are very significant in the politics of the states. Both have been very liberal in their politics for many years.

Massachusetts has more minority populations. There are twice as many Blacks and about 12% more Hispanics in the Bay State.

When it comes to education there are dramatic differences! There are more competitive colleges in Massachusetts than there are colleges in all of the Northwest! Harvard, MIT, Tuffs, Boston University, Holly Cross, Williams, Boston College, to name a few, are all colleges that are open only to those high school students who have taken high school very seriously.

Why doesn’t the Northwest, touting itself as “educated,” have a stable of colleges that are of this caliber? Many of the employees of Microsoft and Boeing come from these New England institutions.

Washington State is 35th in the nation in high school graduation rates only about 2/3rds of those who enter the 9th grade graduate and there are no specific standards for “graduation” in Washington in subjects as important as Mathematics and Science... Massachusetts is 10th in the nation and they have standards for both Math and Science.. So Washington is better than 10 of the 50 states and Massachusetts is better than all but 9! Perhaps if you have so few even graduating from high school, let alone being qualified to attend a competitive college, there just isn’t a demand for quality education in Washington? After being involved in Washington education for more than 15 years I would suggest that there just isn’t a demand for quality education either at the K-12 or college level. Our community colleges are full of kids taking remedial courses.

Massachusetts has charter schools, magnet schools and some of the finest public high schools in the nation as well as some of the premier private day and boarding schools. Why is this the case? I would suggest it is because the parents in Massachusetts have spoken clearly that bland education just isn’t adequate.

In Massachusetts school board elections are strongly contested events that offer some real contrasts in philosophy. These disagreements have lead to charter schools and a very strong private education system that allows parents to select many different approaches to an education. These various approaches are mostly designed to prepare students for the rigorous acceptance criteria of so many of New England’s, colleges and universities.

Why doesn’t this happen in Washington? As some readers point out it doesn’t seem possible to even have a discussion of these issues with school boards in this state. School Board members, in general, are just “not available” for any kind of public discussion about the quality of schools and all roundly proclaim that their schools are “excellent.” Even if some of the members decline to have their children attend them!

Instead of addressing these issues school boards in Washington seem to resort to wringing their hands over poor achievement scores, projecting better times ahead, and lamenting the lack of funding from the state. Oh, I forgot to mention school districts in Massachusetts do not depend upon the state for nearly the level of funding that school districts in Washington get! School boards in Massachusetts have to “sell” their needs to their local populations! They cannot rely on an excuse that the “State” isn’t helping them enough as Massachusetts doesn’t seem to believe that the state has a “Paramount Duty” to “educate” children! In Massachusetts they must believe that each community has this obligation.

It would seem then that if a Washington community really wanted better schools they would have to be more participative and more insistent. Washington State seems to have more than its share of apathy and this is most apparent in schools and education.

There hasn’t been, at least I haven’t seen it, anywhere in Washington, any group, perhaps save “Where’s the Math,” that has approached school boards in this state suggesting, or demanding, that our schools be competitive with even the best states let alone with the international leaders. When we don’t do well on the soccer or football field we demand changes. When we don’t do well on the whiteboard we shrug our shoulders, resign ourselves, and muddle on.

Where are the “soccer moms” for quality education? Based on the experiences of the Where’s the Math people I would have to suggest that they are either reluctant to enter the fray, even though their children are at risk, or they are too busy on the soccer field.

School board members, not feeling any heat, continue to follow the advice of their state association to “not be controversial” and look to the state for more money even if they couldn’t figure out how this money would actually improve education.

Is 35th in a nation that is probably 30th in the world good enough? It must be so. We are leaders in football and used to be first in baseball. Our soccer abilities seem to be improving.