Greetings!

Testing season is in full swing across Washington, and my third-grade son is plugging away, eager to demonstrate what he knows, as well as areas where he could use more support. Meanwhile, my wife and I are brainstorming which treat he'll earn once his Smarter Balanced Assessments are all finished.

In our latest podcast, Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year and 2018 Washington state Teacher of the Year, discusses how the teaching profession has changed during her tenure, how to create a national narrative around education when it is often seen as a local issue, what advice she would give teacher prep institutions, and what it was like meeting the President.

18-year-old Maite Cruz is a senior at Chiawana High School in Pasco, and plans to study political science this fall at Western Washington University. Already she has testified before the state legislature in Olympia, testified before the State Board of Education, and has been a tireless advocate for her community group, Ambassadors of Lakeview Achieving Success (ALAS).

Although the Legislature’s recent multi-billion-dollar investments in our education system were intended to fully fund education, inequities still persist.

In our free webinar Tuesday, May 15 at 12:30 pm, League of Education Voters Senior Policy Analyst Jacob Vela will illustrate these inequities through interactive maps of Washington’s 295 school districts, and answer your questions.

The Rural Counselor Network is a major milestone of the Rural Alliance, which represents 79 districts, 46,000 students, 15 colleges/universities, and non-profit organizations. The Rural Counselor Network's primary focus is to increase readiness for college, career, and life for all students, including growth in academic, career, and social-economic development.

We recently surveyed superintendents in Washington state to better understand what new and emerging issues their schools and communities are facing. They ranked funding inequity, the income-based achievement gap, adequate early childhood education options, and the need for integrated student supports as the most critical issues in their districts.

In a recent op-ed that was published in both The Spokesman-Review and The Olympian, League of Education Voters State Field Director Kelly Munn writes, "We believe that if we invest first in students who have more challenges, it will benefit most, if not all, students. We also realize that every student has different needs, and some need more of one kind of support over another. The strategies we learn to use in the schools to support students of color, students with special needs, or students who live in poverty will help every student."