Seattle Forward

The Urgent and Critical Importance of Preschool For All

If we set our minds to it, Washington State could make high-quality, universal, voluntary preschool available for all of our three- and four-year-old children. And, we could do it in just ten years.

 

Should we set out on this journey? That's the key question.

We have nearly 60 years of research documenting the value of preschool for our youngest learners. High-quality preschool is certainly not a panacea, but over 60 years of research shows us it can have dramatic, life-changing benefits for our children. (Click on the image to the left or here to read and download the PDF.)

 

Preschool done right produces huge benefits, including a very strong economic return-on-investment for society at large. Frankly, the decades of research paint a very clear "why wouldn't we do this?" picture.

 

Former State Representative Ruth Kagi — Washington's decades-long champion for children — and I, along with several academics, published a detailed policy paper yesterday on the value of universal preschool. We believe high-quality preschool is essential for our state's three- and four-year-old children if we are to successfully address the inequities we see in education, economic opportunity, criminal legal system involvement, and adult earning power and health.

 

Our state already provides limited preschool services through the Early Childhood Education Assistant Program (ECEAP) and the federal government's Head Start program. But these combined programs only reach about 30% of our children statewide.

 

Here are a few key facts to keep in mind as you consider our proposal for universal preschool in Washington.

• Washington ranks 38th among all states in preschool enrollment for 4-year-olds and 17th for 3-year-olds. We have failed, so far, to provide all of our state's children with the strong and fair start they need and certainly deserve as they begin their journey to adulthood.
  
  
• Approximately two-thirds of the public preschool classrooms in Washington are only part-day. This fact represents a vast, harmful barrier for working families who need full-day services to keep working.
• Because of opportunity gaps, nearly 50% — one-half — of Washington's five-year-old children arrive at Kindergarten already behind on six age-specific measures of learning preparedness. These children face a steep climb as they attempt to catch up. Think about this for a moment. Due to lack of opportunity, one-half of Washington's five-year-old children enter Kindergarten already behind. This is a red-flag warning to the political leadership of Washington that our systems, policies, and practices are creating life-long harm to children and our society.
  
  
• Today, public preschool tuition subsidies are provided to families with incomes below $37,100 per year. There is almost no assistance for families earning more which means families with moderate-to-low incomes are left on their own, unable to afford quality preschool services for their children. 
  
  
• There is a severe shortage of qualified preschool educators and facilities in Washington. This is why our proposal for Washington Preschool for All is designed to be phased in over ten years; we need time to do it right. 

Implementing Washington Preschool for All is good for children and families, and it's good for our long-term economic growth and sustainability. High-quality preschool is a public good we should diligently pursue.

 

There is another compelling reason these recommendations are essential right now. President Biden has proposed universal preschool for America's children as part of his American Families Plan and the Build Back Better legislation. It's being considered by Congress now. If adopted, the framework we recommend in our policy brief will set Washington up to fully implement universal preschool and take full advantage of the federal dollars that will flow to the state.

 

I've written a lot about preschool, including the Seattle Preschool Program. You can review all of these earlier musings here.

What Yesterday's Election Means for Seattle's Future

There are still votes to count but it is clear from last night's results that the pragmatic, rational progressive candidates came out on top. Finally!

 

Congratulations to Mayor-elect Bruce Harrell, Councilmember-elect Sara Nelson, and City Attorney-elect Ann Davison. Each of you campaigned hard, shared your vision for our city, and achieved stunning victories. Well done.

 

This is very good news for Seattle's future, something I wrote about last January 5 in my Seattle Forward column. I'm repeating it here because it's more important than ever as our newly elected officials take office and begin the process of governing.

 

Here's what I wrote last January. I'm very confident our new leaders can make this vision even better and work to achieve it.

 

Seattle needs a vision reset.

 

The mayor is not seeking re-election. The school superintendent has resigned. The police chief was pushed aside by the city council. The coronavirus pandemic has left us isolated. Downtown is desolate. Where and how we work is being transformed. Many essential workers are struggling mightily to keep up and pay the bills. Our infrastructure systems are inadequately maintained. First responders are overloaded and stretched thin. Campers have taken over many of our parks, green spaces, and sidewalks, preventing others from accessing them safely. Ideological and political divides are pushing us further and further into our dogmatic corners. Herein, opportunity presents itself. 

 

The urban theorist Richard Florida argues cities and surrounding regions will thrive as we move beyond the pandemic, just as they have following previous calamities: “Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, but it also hands us a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild communities to be more equitable and more inclusive, as well as more livable.”

 

America has lifted itself from calamity before and, unexpectedly, created a more equitable and inclusive society. Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett document these sweeping recoveries in their new book, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. They propose a return to a “we” approach to public policy, business practices, and community affairs, a new communitarian mindset, if you will, instead of the intense “I” focus that permeates American society today.

 

Religious leaders are making the same plea. Pope Francis, in his latest book, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, encourages new approaches to bridge our divides, focused on making the world safer, fairer, and healthier for everyone. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times traces today’s crises to the loss of a strong, broadly shared moral code and the elevation of self-interest over the common good.

 

From Ideological Extremes to Common Purpose

 

So, while Seattle’s city government is adrift, consumed by the tyranny of the urgent and ideological extremes, and, in my opinion, lacking a broadly shared overall vision for where the city is headed, let’s grab this opportunity to cast a new vision of the city we want to build for an equitable and inclusive future for everyone.

 

I would guess most Seattleites desire an economically and culturally vibrant city built on a foundation of excellent schools, clean energy, efficient and diverse transportation options, affordable housing, and robust arts and sports entertainment. I also believe we sincerely want to tackle two of the most persistent challenges we face – racial inequity and how best to help those living unsheltered.

 

So, here’s some vision casting for your consideration; hopefully, it stimulates further discussion.

 

Confessing Original Sins

 

Let’s start by being a city that openly acknowledges our nation’s original sins of slavery and the vicious slaughter and horrible treatment of Native Americans, and the persistent racism these sins birthed — real estate redlining, mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders, police violence, banking discrimination, public education that leaves so many behind, to name just a few. These racist practices and policies became woven into the fabric of our daily lives, crushing in their consequences. If we committed to honestly wrestle with this history, we would be guided by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s warning, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We would give voice to those most affected by these wrongs, work to mend the damage, and make economic investments designed to build opportunity and wealth within the affected communities, a form of 21^st Century reparations if you will. We would be a city that reaches high toward racial equity and justice for all.

 

Focus on Children

 

How about a city that so loves, nourishes, and invests in all of our children that they soar and push the limits of their potential. If this were our vision, we would follow the science of early child development in the all-important birth-to-five window of opportunity, making sure every child gets the strong and fair start they deserve. We’d do that by making high-quality, affordable, and accessible childcare available to working parents, so no family pays more than 7% of their household income for the childcare they need. We would provide free, high-quality, universal preschool to our three- and four-year-olds so every child enters kindergarten ready to learn, erasing the kindergarten-readiness gap that today sees one-third of all Seattle children and one-half of children of color start school already behind. Tragically, kids who start behind often stay behind, which is why it is so crucial to invest early in what works best to prepare kids for kindergarten.

 

And, we would erase the racial inequity that has existed in our public K-12 schools for far too long, a dysfunctional system that every year leaves behind about a quarter of our children of color when they fail to graduate from high school. Done right, these efforts would buttress the work of parents and — as the evidence clearly shows — would achieve measurable and wonderful outcomes for our kids: higher education achievement, fewer teen pregnancies, less involvement in the criminal legal system, better health, and higher earning power as adults. These steps alone would transform lives and be a major step toward racial equity and lasting economic prosperity.

 

Shared Prosperity

 

How about a city that continues to pursue public policies designed to strengthen economic opportunity, like we did with the higher minimum wage and paid sick-and-safe leave, while also, and importantly, honoring our small and large businesses and applauding their job creation. A city that nourishes a win-win compact between employers and employees — businesses thrive and acknowledge their employees as their most valued asset and treat them as such with excellent wages, strong benefits, and long-term retention and development plans. Too idealistic? Take a look at those local companies that have already created exemplary win-win work environments — Costco, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants, Expedia, Nordstrom, Zillow, Alaska Air, Redfin, PCC Community Markets, to name just a few.

 

Justice for All

 

How about a city that has a criminal legal system that values the dignity and worth of every person, those engaged in criminal behavior and their victims. If this were our vision, we would be a city where our police officers worked diligently as true partners with the natural guardians who live, work, study, and play in our neighborhoods. This would be a city where law enforcement focused primarily on those offenders causing the most harm, especially crimes of violence and crimes directed against our most vulnerable residents — children, the elderly and disabled, immigrants, those experiencing homeless, and those living in poverty. A city where everyone respected and valued our police officers because of their exemplary behavior of dignity and fairness toward everyone. A city where we first and foremost sought reconciliation and restorative justice, but also held offenders accountable to protect the health and safety of all.

 

How about a city that recognized the oppressive harms of untreated substance abuse disorder and mental health crises and offered truly on-demand, medically-based treatment services instead of leaving people to fend for themselves wandering our streets, living unsheltered, some preying on others, and causing further harms. This would be a city that stopped waiting, hoping some other level of government would step in with a solution. We would step up and act to solve this very obvious problem by providing the evidence-based help needed, starting with safe off-the-street housing, like tiny houses, rented hotel rooms, and more enhanced, 24-hour shelter. At the same time, and very importantly, we would stop ignoring, excusing, or allowing ourselves to be paralyzed by the harmful criminal acts some of these same individuals commit, a tolerance that has created chaos in parts of the city and caused many to lose confidence in the city government’s ability to keep our neighborhoods safe.

 

Paying Attention to Basics

 

How about a city that carefully tended its environment and infrastructure — increasing our tree canopy, preserving open space and parks for all to enjoy, maintaining in good order our bridges, roadways, bike, and pedestrian pathways, community centers and sports fields, sewer and storm systems, electrical grid, and our Tolt and Cedar clean watersheds. A city with a maintenance and repair plan rigorously followed and funded, a far less expensive approach in the long run than emergency repairs.

 

Moving Taxation into the 21^st Century

 

Thinking even more boldly, how about a city that champions across the state a fair and equitable tax system to modernize Washington’s unjust, inadequate, and antiquated system that extracts a higher percentage of household income from our poorest families than it does from our wealthiest. As our local economist and nationally-recognized state tax expert Dick Conway has said, “If you want to address income inequity, adopt a state income tax and eliminate all other state and local taxes.” A tax system created in the early 1900s can’t adequately, nor equitably, serve our needs today. We would be a city known for advocating tax modernization based on fairness and sensitivity to our current economic systems and practices.

 

Lifting Up the Common Good

 

How about a city that unites around the common good, works to understand different opinions, and practices the politics of inclusion and compromise without the divisive rancor and personal attacks so common today. A city that restores the “we” spirit Putnam and Garrett describe, and that Pope Francis and Rabbi Sacks have prayed for. A city where people come together to achieve shared goals, just like we’ve done in the past with the cleanup of Lake Washington in the late 1950s which stopped the discharge of 20 million gallons of raw sewage into the lake every day, the adoption of Forward Thrust in 1968 that created community centers, fire stations, swimming pools and expanded parks across the city, the Sound Transit light rail system being built now, voter approval in 2018 of the Seattle Promise free community college benefit, and the remodeling of our libraries and fire stations in recent years.

 

How about a city with elected officials who cared more about the effective and efficient delivery of city services — about governing — than about advancing their own political careers or scoring points with the radical fringes of our political landscape. A city where people viewed city government as consistently and effectively getting good things done for everyone. A city where we valued the common good above all else. Imagine what we could do and what it would mean.

 

Just imagine. A child born in Seattle immediately cared for not just by her parents, family, and neighbors, but by an economy that gives her parents time off to nurture her and quality childcare and prekindergarten services that foster her development and allows her parents to continue working. As she grows, she attends an excellent public school that works equally well for everyone, regardless of the color of their skin. She enjoys parks and playgrounds as a healthy way to meet friends and stay active. She witnesses the most vulnerable among us protected and cared for. She knows the police officers and firefighters in her neighborhood, and they know her and understand her family and their community values. As she enters the workforce as an adult, she finds many well-paying jobs to choose from at iconic Seattle businesses. Is that too hard to imagine?  I don’t believe so.

 

Yes, sometimes Seattle’s government and political environment can feel like it’s locked in a hamster wheel, constantly moving, yet not progressing. We — you and I — can change that with a compelling vision for the future, a future based on shared values, and an unwavering commitment to the evidence of what works to strengthen the common good.

 

This is my vision for Seattle. What’s yours?

Seattle Needs A Vision Reset . . . Quickly

Seattle needs a vision reset.

The mayor is not seeking re-election. The school superintendent has resigned. The police chief was pushed aside by the city council. The coronavirus pandemic has left us isolated. Downtown is desolate. Where and how we work is being transformed. Many essential workers are struggling mightily to keep up and pay the bills. Our infrastructure systems are inadequately maintained. First responders are overloaded and stretched thin. Campers have taken over many of our parks, greenspaces and sidewalks, preventing others from accessing them safely. Ideological and political divides are pushing us further and further into our dogmatic corners. Herein, opportunity presents itself.  

The urban theorist Richard Florida argues cities and surrounding regions will thrive as we move beyond the pandemic, just as they have following previous calamities: “Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, but it also hands us a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild communities to be

Mayor Durkan's Decision, Crime and Economic Recovery, Wrong Vs Evil

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan's decision not to seek re-election didn't come as a total surprise, but it certainly creates uncertainty for our city going forward.

 

When I write that it's not a surprise I mean that in today's political climate where verbal personal attacks, threats of violence, and name calling — the politics of personal destruction — are so common I understand the Mayor's decision. Add to this ugliness the illogical populism of the far left and far right and we have a mess that makes governing all the more difficult. (Unrelated, but important, see below for Anthony Robinson's discussion of being wrong versus being evil.)

 

Mayor Durkan's decision to focus on the significant challenges we face instead of a re-election

Where Are We Headed?

The challenges of policing in our country did not arise in a vacuum. They connect to a broad array of factors . . . They connect to the fact that in this country police shootings and police misconduct disproportionately affect Black people. The challenges connect, as well, to the shameful American legacy of slavery, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, to the “war on drugs,” to redlining, and to public schools that have and continue to fail Black children.

 

In this context, and at this time, it is important for someone in my position to say clearly — Black Lives Matter.

 

Black Lives Matter in policing.

 

Black Lives Matter in education.

 

Black Lives Matter in our economic system.

 

We must squarely face our history of racism and injustice, and, frankly, that’s something I don’t believe our country has truly done. We will know that we have when all people of color have equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, and never doubt their standing as Americans.

 

I spoke the above words in an address to the City Council on September 25, 2017, when I was serving as Seattle’s interim Mayor. Now, nearly three years later, here we are again grappling with the same challenges in policing and criminal justice.

Key Step to Preserve Jobs and Springboard Our Economy

A shorter version of this article was first published at Crosscut on May 18, 2020, with my co-authors Gladys Gillis, owner of Starline Luxury Coaches in Seattle and immediate past chair of the national United Motor Coach Association and Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association.

 

On CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday, May 17, 2020, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell urged Congress to do much more to preserve jobs and prevent business bankruptcies. Powell also said the Federal Reserve still had lots of "ammunition" to act further, but additional Congressional action is urgently needed.

 

Last January, Seattle was smack in the middle of the first outbreak of the coronavirus. Now, nearly four months later, almost 37 million Americans across the country have lost their jobs.

The official unemployment rate for April hit 14.7%.

 

This staggering number will likely increase; some believe unemployment levels could reach 30%. That is higher than the unemployment peak of the Great Depression, in 1933, when 24.9% of American workers were without work.

 

Downtown Seattle is Booming, but . . .

Seattle’s downtown is booming.

There are now 328,000 jobs located downtown, a 52% increase since 2010. Nearly 90,000 people now live downtown, including almost 5,000 children. In the decade ending in 2019, 286 new buildings were constructed, 4,050 new hotel rooms were added, 17.5 million new square feet of office space was built, and 27,209 new residential units opened for occupancy.

Since 2010, the number of restaurant jobs downtown increased by 47% and restaurant sales nearly doubled. Each year, 15 million people visit the Pike Place Market; four million enter museums; three million attend sporting events.

These statistics are included in the Downtown Seattle Association’s annual State of Downtown Economic Report presented last week to a cheering crowd of city leaders.

Clearly, downtown Seattle is thriving and driving the overall vitality of the city. And citywide there is reason to cheer, too. Just think about what we have going for us—the nation’s cleanest water, a carbon free electric grid that produces some of the lowest cost electricity in the country, the largest public transportation expansion underway anywhere in the nation, a quilt of wonderful neighborhoods, and a physical environment that offers sea and fresh water on our doorstep and mountain vistas less than an hour away.

All good news, for sure.

Now, here’s the bad news.

Many Seattleites are being left behind and may never participate in a meaningful way in our booming economy. There are many reasons for this stark reality, including families trying to raise young children and having to pay exorbitant childcare costs on top of steep housing prices. One of the most significant contributors, however, is our failure for decades to provide all of our children with the strong and fair start they need and certainly deserve in the first five years of life. This failure perhaps more than anything else has blocked their ability to thrive and achieve their full potential.

Consider this fact. At the beginning of each new school year, kindergarten teachers assess the readiness of their students to learn. It’s called the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS); it measures a child’s age specific social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, and math capabilities. This assessment is key to understanding where kids are in their development and helps guide teachers in their work with individual students.

Tragically, In Seattle, the WaKIDS assessment shows that one third of our children enter kindergarten without the skills and abilities they should have; they are already behind.  And it’s worse for children of color, one half of whom are behind just as they are starting their K-12 journey. Children who start behind, often remain behind.

The inequity in access to high-quality early learning opportunities experienced by so many of our neighbors has been building for decades.  For many working parents, high-quality early learning options are simply not accessible, and even for those who are doing well, the costs are significant, often prohibitive.  While the rest of us enjoy the economic good times, we are ignoring an injustice that shatters a child’s confidence which predictably for some leads to huge negative consequences—dropping out of school, criminal behavior, inability to find meaningful employment, social disconnection—consequences which ultimately affect us all.

We can change this by making sure every child regardless of their neighborhood, the color of their skin, or their family’s economic status has a strong and fair start.

Nearly 50 years of academic research shows that kids who have a high-quality early learning experience in the first five years of life will achieve higher educational attainment, have better health, higher earning power as adults, and less involvement in the criminal justice system. The most recent studies also show that these kids can successfully break the bonds of intergenerational poverty.

A child’s brain is ninety percent formed by the time they reach five. Important social skills—playing well with others, following directions, verbally processing feelings—and cognitive abilities stimulated by exposure to a broad vocabulary and group project play increase dramatically in these early years. These crucial skills are much harder to acquire later without this early foundation.

And yet, not all children in Seattle, or across our state for that matter, are receiving the opportunity for a strong start. Our systems of childcare and preschool are fragmented, too expensive for many working parents, and not designed to achieve the best outcomes. As a result, as the evidence shows, many of our children fall behind before they even get started.

We can fix this decades-long failure if we apply the science of early learning. The return on investing in high quality early learning programs is strong, certainly worth every dollar. It’s the best investment we could possibly make for our children’s sake, and for the rest of us, too.

So, let’s create a universal yet voluntary early learning system that spans the all-important prenatal to kindergarten years with high-quality child care services for infants and toddlers, high-quality preschool for our three- and four-year old kids, and tailored supports for families facing challenges.

We need a high-quality child care system that helps working families afford care if they earn 85 percent or less of the statewide median household income (about $63,000), so they don’t pay more than seven percent of their income for childcare. Families making more should pay on a sliding scale tied to their income. And, as other cities and states do, we need free, high-quality universal preschool for our three- and four-year olds so they are ready for kindergarten. This will bring our communities together, level the playing field for all of our children, allow parents to work and pursue additional education, further strengthening our workforce today as well as the pipeline of talent for tomorrow.

Successfully implementing an effective early learning system is the most effective strategy we can employ to erase the inequity so many are still experiencing despite these economic boom times. 

Washington Legislature: Help Workers Start Saving for Retirement

This post, co-written with Stephanie Bowman, first appeared in The Seattle Times on February 11, 2020.

For the third time in recent years, the Washington Legislature is poised to finally do something about the massive retirement crisis looming in our state, where more than 1 million workers — 38% of all workers — have no access to employer-sponsored savings plans.

By adopting the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Act (HB 2516), the Legislature will be following the lead of Oregon, California and Illinois, and soon Maryland and Connecticut. These other states have created government facilitated, privately administered worker-owned retirement saving plans requiring employers who do not already offer a plan to enroll their workers in the state’s plan. These plans are easy for employees to sign up for, and — most important — go with the employee when they leave the company, a critical feature for younger employees who change jobs every few years.

Short Term Rental Regulations: Details and Next Steps

Last week Mayor Murray and I announced proposed regulations for short term rentals. We have taken a balanced approach that recognizes the benefits platforms like Airbnb or VRBO create for Seattle residents, while also attempting to curb the growing commercialization of this industry. At a time where long-term housing is hard to come by, we want to encourage owners of multiple properties to make their properties available to long-term residents.

My Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee will receive an introductory briefing about this proposal on Wednesday, June 15. We will dive into the details in July.

For those wondering what this means for you, here are a few highlights:

• If you operate a short term rental out of your primary residence (including a connected in-law apartment or backyard cottage), you will be able operate all year long. This allows considerably more flexibility than the regulations in many other cities, which often include a hard cap on the total number of nights.
• If you operate a short term rental in a property that is not your primary residence, you cannot operate year-round; you will be limited at 90 nights a year. This limitation will provide a financial incentive for property owners to move these units back to the long-term market, making Seattle housing available for Seattleites.
• For those who operate past 90 nights in your primary residence, you will need to go online and secure a new regulatory license.
• Overall, these are very modest regulations: we estimate about 80% of short term rental operators will see no new regulations at all under this proposal.

SODO Arena Street Vacation Committee Vote

The City Council’s Transportation Committee voted 4-1 (O’Brien, Johnson, Harrell and myself voting “yes,” Bagshaw voting “no”) this week on whether or not to approve a conditional street vacation on Occidental Ave S in SODO. A street vacation is a formal process where the City Council decides whether or not to grant public right-of-way in exchange for fair market value and other public benefits.

This street vacation has been sought as part of a proposal to build an arena for basketball and hockey teams. After proposing several amendments to strengthen the conditions of the vacation, I voted to approve the vacation. Here’s why.