Seattle Schools Off the Chopping Block

The controversial plan to close ten Seattle public schools is finally dead after the Superintendent and a few Board members decided they'd had enough roasting over the hot fires of public opinion. Critics of the plan have been vocal about how the closures wouldn't come close to solving the budget shortfall they were meant to address and the absolute horror of not having your child graduate from the same school they started at has not been lost on parents.

The Seattle Times has the full text of Superintendent Raj Manhas' plan retraction:

The community has made it clear that they understand our funding crisis and they are willing to roll up their sleeves and help. I am gratified by the overwhelming number of people who have come forward and volunteered their time, effort, and ideas for raising revenue and gaining long-term financial stability. To capitalize on this reservoir of energy and support, I am announcing the formation of a committee of community leaders to work with me over the next several months. The committee's purpose will be to review our funding challenges, help with the realignment of our budget to better support the academic initiatives in our five-year plan, and explore and provide assistance with revenue strategies at both the state and local level.

We're pretty sure that "roll up their sleeves and help" means "open their wallets and pay."

In other Seattle school news, Garfield High has started taking measures to protect its students from military recruiters. According to the Christian Science Monitor Garfield has adopted a resolution that says, "public schools are not a place for military recruiters."