Everywhere I go someone has an idea about how to save or fix Tacoma's "broken schools." It's one of the hazards of being a teacher. When I tell people in Tacoma that I work at Lincoln High School or that I work in the Lincoln Center Program, about 60 percent of the time the reaction is "ooooh" - a long, drawn out version of the word, a mildly sympathetic noise that roughly translates to "poor you." More often than not it is followed something along the following continuum: "that must be hard" on the more socially refined end, "I hear that's a rough school" in the middle range and "break up any fights lately?" from people who have no guilt about stereotyping people, specifically children, of poverty. Basically, over half the people I meet think my job is the midpoint between prison guard and nightclub bouncer. It seems, their vision is clouded by their own prejudices and urban legend. And as long as that is the way the community views the children within its schools, we will never have the schools our kids - especially our most vulnerable deserve.

Our views of our schools are clouded by our poor vision and metrics.

Everyone wants to make sure that schools serve the kids of our community. But, it seems the biggest issue with measuring (in order to improve) school quality, within Tacoma and beyond is that while we are awash in data, there is no real metric for what a "quality school" really is.

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A few weeks ago we broke down Governor Inslee's proposed tax on beer production. Washington's beer community has been waging an admirable grassroots campaign against the tax, which culminated last Friday in a protest on the front steps of the Capitol Building. Tacoma's Joe Korbuszewski helped organize the rally and chatted with us about the experience.

TOWN HALL TOURIST: How was the rally? How many people attended and did you feel it was effective?

JOE KORBUSZEWSKI: The rally went really well.  We had about 160 people show up consisting of brewers, brewery workers, bartenders, distributors, and beer lovers.  I feel really good about that number considering that we only had about a week to plan and it was pouring rain that morning.  

I'd say it was definitely effective.  As a citizen, you can send all the emails you want to your lawmakers, but you start to wonder if they actually read them after the third or fourth auto-response.  Bringing a group of people to their doorstep is a lot harder to ignore.  We were immediately greeted by news media and a dozen or so state lawmakers came outside to speak with us. 

THT: Were beer advocates able to meet with legislators? Were you or others able to meet with any of the Tacoma coalition?

KORBUSZEWSKI: Senate was in session while we were there but we were able to meet many different representatives from all over the state.  They came outside to meet us on the steps and spoke in support of the brewing industry. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet with any of my representatives.? It was all pretty surreal.  I've never planned or organized anything like this and suddenly, there I was shaking hands with our lawmakers on the steps of the Capitol. 

THT: Which people, businesses, companies are leading in the organizing of advocacy efforts?

KORBUSZEWSKI: The Washington State Brewers Guild is at the forefront of this movement and is supported by The Washington Restaurant Association, Hop Growers, The Washington Beer and Wine Distributors Association and many other groups. ... not to mention every brewery in the state. 

THT: What besides the rally have folks been doing to try to lobby legislators?

KORBUSZEWSKI: We've been urging everyone to contact their legislators as well as the Governor.  The Washington Beer Blog has done a great job getting information out to the public regarding the possible effects that this tax increase could have, as well as publishing statements from many of our states brewers.

THT: Do you know where the bills are currently and if it is expected that they will make it through the legislative process?

KORBUSZEWSKI: I understand that the bill is still in committee and our legislators are ironing out the final budget proposal.  From what I've been told, there is not a good chance for this tax to make it past the senate floor and I hope that holds true. 

Two bills in Olympia could make a big difference for high school and college students, and we're in the home stretch for both of them. Here's the news.

The first bill is called the Dream Act [HB 1817]. The Dream is an affordable college education for immigrant kids.

About 100,000 Washington residents attend college in-state each year. About 30,000 of them receive state "need" grants.

Another 1,000 students aren't U.S. citizens but can legally attend public schools, thanks to President Obama's action last summer.  These students entered the U.S. illegally as children, but can work, pay taxes and go to the schools they help pay for with those taxes. 

There's just one problem. Even while the cost of college goes up, these students aren't eligible for state aid. The Dream Act corrects this problem, and could dictate whether many of these students continue their education.

The Dream Act was introduced in the House by several representatives including Tacoma's David Sawyer [D-29] and Jake Fey [D-27]. It passed with strong bi-partisan support.

And it's dying in the Senate.

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Greater Tacoma's brewery scene is alive and well with growing breweries looking to expand and countless homebrewers looking to advance their passion from hobby to small business. Last week Governor Jay Inslee proposed making a temporary tax on beer production permanent and also extending that tax to small breweries that are currently exempt. The proposed taxed is now making its way through the House and Senate. It's a puzzling proposal that, if passed, would deal an extremely harmful blow to one of Tacoma's exciting and budding industries.

To be certain, the state needs to raise new revenue to account for dire funding needs in areas like public education, social services and healthcare. That said, there are quite a few reasons to be skeptical of this tax.

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Each fall, local governments set priorities for the upcoming session of the legislature. In this and subsequent entries we'll look at how it's going.

Thanks to Tacoma Government Relations Officer Randy Lewis for much of this information. Additional updates will follow, as well as Mr. Lewis' view on the outlook for K-12 funding.

Two - or two and a half - big issues hang over the Legislature: education funding, both K-12 and higher ed; and the statewide transportation system. The City has a huge stake in these issues, obviously; but it also has some narrower interests.

Money.  Several of Tacoma's priorities are either direct requests for funding ($1 million for the pool at People's Center, $4 million for groundwater at the City gravel pit) or relate to keeping tax revenue (the State or the City).

The March 20 state revenue forecast was, uh, OK. That is, the State's problems don't look any worse than they did three months ago. Plenty bad, but not worse.

The Senate will introduce a budget by March 27. By April 3 bills being considered cross-chamber (House bills under discussion in the Senate, and the reverse) must be reported out of committee - or die! This can be gruesome; we are preparing a report on zombie bills.

Action on these two dates will help predict what happens to the City's money priorities.

But not all Tacoma's priorities require funding. Some essentially ask permission or encourage the State to do certain things. It's clearer how some of these are faring.

Metal Theft. Bad guys steal metal from construction sites and sell the metal to recyclers. House Bill (HB) 1552 will make it harder. The bill passed the House and will be heard in the Senate. This is progress.

How to Pay for Fire Hydrants. Traditionally Tacoma Water paid for hydrants but a recent court ruling shifted the burden to general government. The City wants help; HB 1512 would provide it. The bill passed the House and will be heard in the Senate. This is  progress.

How to Pay for Emergency Services. Voters approved a permanent levy of $0.50 per $1,000 valuation to pay for EMS. Several cities now want the ability to raise this to $0.75. HB 1136 did not make it out of committee, however. This is not progress.

Where Offenders Live. The State Department of Corrections provides housing vouchers for offenders released to live in the community. Senate Bill (SB) 5105 would encourage such housing to be "fairly" allocated across the State, as promoted by Tacoma and other cities. This is progress.

Where People Work on Cars. Many people work on cars at home. If the car is more than 30 years old - or being used for parts for such a car - it's called restoration. The City wants active restoration, a) limited to three vehicles, and b) done out of sight of adjacent property. SB 5121 would weaken the "out of sight" requirement and allow "active restoration" to be loosely defined. This is not progress.

Nuisance Abatement Liens. The City may clean up "nuisance" property and then put a lien on the title, so when the owner sells the City is repaid. There's a disconnect between the County and City lien authority and SB 5323 would reconcile the two; HB 1367 doing the same thing has already passed out of committee. The state banking association wants an amendment related to notification to banks; this could slow things down so much that nothing will be done. This may be progress.

So ... if we ignore money, education reform and the transportation system, the City is doing pretty well so far. Ignoring is bliss.

Ken Miller came to Tacoma as a community organizer in 1970. He's worked in corporate and small business, nonprofits and government.