Wow, Dominic does resemble Keith Moon.

Do not use Dominic Holden and Keith Moon in the same sentence. What is wrong with you, Son?

Maybe The Stranger should regret not unionizing their newspaper?

Dank, remixed: "Anything I post on Twitter is irrelevant, because I'm a notorious drama queen and thus I should never be taken seriously. And I was totally, completely, pathetically wrong on the pot initiative. So, despite being 1) categorically wrong, 2) self-admittedly prone to unhinged public diatribes, 3) unable to apologize to Dominic properly, and 4) a person that nobody should listen to or pay attention to in any way, I still want you to pay attention to me! Because, Lisa Dank."

Also, do not use "Lisa" and "Dank" in the same sentence.

Nick Hanauer's right: they're going to open up at least one charter school that blows away the public schools -- because it's going to cherry-pick the best and brightest students from rich families like his, and leave behind all the problem students and poor kids and special education students and learning-disability kids and all the others who cost a fortune to educate, and turn out kids who can ace the motherfucking shit out of a math or science test. Whoopie. And the underclass will get bigger and bigger until it engulfs the state.

Frizzelle is a scion of cinema? Funny he didn't mention that in the old story about his dad's dick.

OTOH, the Rodin bit is pretty funny.

Fluoride still makes sense - even if its opponents don't - regretfully, they keep coming back for more debunking.

Hanauer has a deep hate of public schools? Shocker!

Hanauer ought to read the Stanford national study on charters, showing that most of them do not outperform public schools. In fact, many do worse.

Too bad we don’t adequately fund public schools, which would benefit many more students.

It's not just that charters don't do any better than regular public schools, it's that they neglect special ed, the most poor students, and English Language learners, and increase segregation. It is charters that shaft the most vulnerable students, not regular public schools. By their neglect, charters make it harder for regular public schools to serve such students. Nick needs to take his head out of the sand on this one.

Wow Nick, I think that you used every tired old phrase in the ed reformers play book.

Speaking of "Innovative", check out Aviation High School, The Nova Project, The Center School, TOPS, our Montessori programs and the new "Innovation Schools" that are developing right under your very nose. Maybe, if you had a child in public school, you would know that there are programs that deserve not only our acknowledgement but our support, financial and otherwise.

The best part is that all of these programs receive public oversight so we know exactly where our money is going...unlike charter schools.

Speaking of money, it would be nice if you spent more of your energy ensuring that our schools were adequately funded than just dissing public schools, education and educators, none of which you know anything about.

And one other item, Nick, show me a charter school that has "blown away" "conventional schools" and I'll show you a school that has "counseled out" all of their "low performing" students to raise test scores including, actually, particularly, KIPP, the darling of ed reformers in our state.

Check out: Bay Area KIPP schools lose 60% of their students, study confirms, http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area… and Study Finds High Dropout Rates for Black Males in KIPP Schools, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/0… for starters.

And while I'm on the subject, why is it that the NAACP came out with a national resolution on charter schools if they work so well for minority children, the school population that you and others have apparently chosen to target as the population to "save"?

See The NAACP's National Resolution on Charter Schools: http://naacp.3cdn.net/ec6459eda5247ea257….

According to them, they don't need your kind of help.

Just one more thing and I'm out of here.

Nick's rant reminded me of a post on edushyster.com, a must read if you are not familiar with this website. The post is: Minneapolis: Land of 10,000 Rephorm Miracles, http://edushyster.com/?p=1653.

Nick Hanuaer, what a fucking waste. Are you sure you weren't talking to a cardboard cut-out of Michelle Rhee jacking off Rahm Emanuel? Or vice versa?

Hanuaer is another Microsoft millionaire who has decided to read one white paper and poof! he's an education expert. He is not. He throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way (and if he was in the Legislature, he would do the same thing Rodney Tom is doing).

"I regret the fact that you refused to acknowledge that we have a public school system that is insanely, deeply resistant to change, innovation, and accountability."

No, it isn't. Writer In the Sky gave some great local examples. Seatle Schools has a new Creative Approach schools plan that allows school communities to make change THEY want for their schools. We have had Option (alternative) schools in our district for over 20 years and all were started by parents.

He is blinded by the rhetoric out there (which he has down pat). There is NO status quo or anyone saying schools are great, why change? But that change needs to start with FULLY -FUNDING them as the Supreme Court has directed. (You'll note he said nothing about that. When you have money, you don't worry about money. The rest of us do.)

No, charters are not going to be any different here in Washington State. Maybe another court case will prevent us from going down the road that other states have found less-than-successful and incredibly divisive and costly.

Nick Hanauer is an arrogant ass. Charter schools are a crock. Utah has plenty. They do a fabulous job cherry picking students despite their "lottery".

Forget that charter school stuff. Did no one else notice that Richard Conlin got off the zinger of the motherfucking year?

Nick Hanauer, despite his well-crafted, misleading image as some sort of "Progressive Democrat", is really the present-day, Seattle incarnation of Mr. Henry F. Potter---accurately characterized as "warped, frustrated" and one of the "richest and meanest men in the county"---portrayed in the 1946 classic, "It's A Wonderful Life."

Like Mr. Potter, we have to ask Nick Hanauer "What makes you such a hard-skulled character? You
have no family-––no children. You can't begin to spend all the money you've got."

Yet, Nick Hanauer---who demonstrates his ignorance by stupidly assuming that Stranger employees don't have children (Duh?)---righteously lectures us about the supposedly "bad" public school system that he has ironically done so much to weaken through his prevarication, slander, financial manipulation and raw intimidation. (Ask the people at FUSE---who were pressured into taking a "neutral" stance on 1240---about Hanauer's no-so-subtle threats to defund their group if they didn't kowtow to his demands that they "not take sides on the charter school initiative.")

Hanauer goes on to gleefully predict that Stranger employees will be "desperate" to get their own "future children" into charters and that he "looks forward to seeing that." As if Hanauer---the childless elitist, looking down on the peasants---wouldn't join his fellow billionaires in sending HIS kids to private, exclusive "academies", if he had any to send...

Like Mr. Potter, Hanauer hates public education because despite his vast, largely unearned wealth, in the words of George Bailey, his steadfast, honest "little man/loser" opponent, our schools are "something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you!"---like Potter's absolute obsession with "the Building and Loan" that he can't quite pry loose from Bailey.

And, contrary to what the effete Hanauer and his fellow Ruling Elite Buddies might believe, the war for our public schools is actually just entering the next phase. Parents have gotten wise. We now know what's going on; and we're angry. (Why do you think you could only manage a statewide, statistical tie, Nick, despite outspending your opponents by 17 to 1?)

I wouldn't gloat if I were Nick Hanauer. Once our elected officials and judges realize the horror show hidden within the 1240 Trojan Horse---including the most extremist "Trigger/Private Takeover" process in the country---they'll run from any association with this ALEC-inspired dunghill.

Sounds a little too literate to be Sean "My Excuse for Our Officers, And I Do Have A Good One" Whitcomb.