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Green Party 101

If you are new to the Green Party learn the basics with this overview article.

Working Groups

Education

Mission

To transform pre-K-20 education in Seattle in alignment with all 10 Key Values of the Green Party of Seattle, through research, education, and advocacy.

Research

Goal: Develop position papers on critical education issues and become a respected major player in local education policy.

  • Research current education issues affecting Seattle citizens
  • Build relationships with local education-related organizations
  • Identify gaps between best practices and current practices in Seattle
  • Research models of education consistent with 10 key values

Educate

Goal: Educate GPOS members, elected officials, and the general public about education issues AND increase awareness of GPOS among education consumers.

  • Action alerts, GPOS WebPages, newsletter, etc.
  • One-page 'education briefs' for public distribution and website
  • Green Forums on education issues, open to the public
  • Green Services to 'education consumers' in Seattle, i.e. demystifying and democratizing the educational policy process
  • Press releases, articles, op-eds on local educational policies and practices
  • Guide for candidates thinking of running for Seattle School Board
  • Help teachers identify curriculum in alignment with 10 key values
  • Educate teachers about models of education consistent with 10 key values

Advocate

Goal: Develop AND implement a GPOS education agenda in the city.

  • Liaise with education policy makers (e.g. Seattle School Board, Legislative education committees)
  • Develop the education plank for the GPOS platform
  • Recruit and support candidates for Seattle School Board
  • Increase voter turnout by progressive education consumers

Current Issues

These are some of the issues our Working Group is considering working on this year.

School Culture

  • Bullying and harassment
  • Teacher training
  • Teachers' working conditions
  • Team-building for educators
  • Value of relationships, respect, awareness to surroundings and influence of the environments/structure of the school

Inequity

  • Academic achievement gap
  • Coming to grips with the cultural biases built into all of our institutions
  • Discipline gap
  • Diversity training (anti-oppression work)
  • Inequities between Seattle Public Schools
  • Institutional racism

Ed Deform

  • False reforms and false accountability offered by high-stakes tests
  • Governmental mandates stifling the quality of curriculum and schools
  • High-stakes testing
  • Less oppressive models of education
  • Standardized testing

Funding

  • Commercialization
  • Lack of a strong applied science education
  • Private school siphoning of significant portions of both the student body and their parents' electoral & financial support from the public school system.
  • Stable funding

Democracy

  • Administrator accountability
  • Democratic education decision-making
  • Improving the communications between the District and its constituents
  • Involving families in their children's education
  • Making education more of a priority for all of us
  • School Board elections
  • Teacher accountability

Working Group Contact Information

Brita Butler-Wall, Ph.D., Acting Chair

bbwall@drizzle.com, (206)523-4922