Category: Top Story

By Jerry Cornfield, The Herald

OLYMPIA — One of the first Republican-sponsored education reform bills became law Tuesday and will give the state more power to intercede in schools where student performance on basic skills tests is persistently poor.

Under the legislation signed by Gov. Jay Inslee, the superintendent of public instruction will provide technical assistance to schools where student scores on reading and math assessments are consistently poor for a period of years.

If the extra attention doesn’t improve student performance, the superintendent can impose a multi-year action plan on the school that prescribes such things as teaching methods and curriculum as well as how federal and state funds are spent on campus.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn said it is a “solid bill” which will enable the state to partner with targeted schools and shift to a leading role down the line if needed.

The prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5329 did not attend Tuesday’s signing but issued a statement calling it “a great step toward ensuring that all children are successful.”

“This was one of the important ways we can go about making sure our public-education system is serving all children and preparing them for the demands of an increasingly competitive job market and global economy,” said Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, who is chairman of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.

What Inslee signed is a far cry from the bill introduced by Litzow. That version required Dorn’s office to take over and manage poor performing schools starting in January 2014.

Pressure from House Democrats and the education establishment led to much revised language, which focuses on letting each school try to turn itself around before the state intervenes.

“We just don’t believe takeovers are a long-term solution to enacting real improvement in student achievement,” said Ben Rarick, executive director of the state Board of Education.

The final version sailed through the Senate on a 45-3 vote and passed the House on a comfortable 68-29 margin. The law takes effect in July.

In the House, opposition came from liberal Democrats, who thought it gave the state much power to intervene in local schools, and conservative Republicans who thought it did not go far enough.

Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, voted to advance the bill out of the House Education Committee on which he serves then voted against it in the end.

He said it was being revised and improved from his perspective as it made its way through the House but did not reach the point where he could support it.

“We have overloaded schools with so many requirements, all in the name of accountability,” he said. “I am of the mindset that we need to give schools more leeway to get the job done. We have to give them the ability to teach.”

Meanwhile, Litzow and Senate Republicans are still pushing for action on a number of other education reform bills in special session.

One of those would evaluate the performance of every school using letter grades of A-F like on a report card. Student achievement is one of the measures that would be used in determining the grade.

Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, said the law signed Tuesday lays the foundation for such a system. “I think they complement one another,” he said. “In order to have a grading system that is meaningful you have to have clearly spelled out accountability standards.”

Inslee said the door is open for dialogue.

“I don’t think that this bill obviates the wisdom of continuing to look at some better ways to evaluate our schools,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the last of the discussion in that regard.”

Steve Robinson, Water4fish.org

AHOLAH, WA (4/30/13)– The government of the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) is calling on the United Nations to undertake a special investigation into the treatment of American Indians in US prisons in connection with their right to exercise traditional religious practices.

In a letter sent recently to S. James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva, Switzerland, Quinault President Fawn Sharp called for the United Nations representative to open immediate investigations with particular attention to prisons in the United States administered by the states of California, Texas, Montana, South Dakota and Washington.
The Quinault government joined the efforts of the Seattle-based non-governmental organization, Huy, pronounced “Hoyt” in the Coast Salish Indian Lushootseed language and meaning “See you again/we never say goodbye.”
In separate correspondence, Huy called for “an investigation into the pervasive pattern in the United States of increasing restrictions on the religious freedoms of indigenous persons who have been deprived of their liberty, particularly by American state corrections agencies and officers.”
“Indigenous peoples in the United States have the highest incarceration rate of any racial or ethnic group—38 percent higher than the national rate,” said Sharp, quoting a 1999 Bureau of Justice Statistics report.  As of 2011, 29,700 indigenous persons were incarcerated in the United States—per capita the largest percentage of any ethnic group.

“But statistics aside, we cannot lose sight of the fact that these men and women are individual human beings and that, even as prisoners, there are certain rights they do retain, legally and morally. No government possesses the right to violate the laws of man or God in carrying out their punishment,” said Sharp.

The United States government is a party to international agreements that prohibit the violation of indigenous peoples’ religious rights. The Quinault government seeks to secure a United Nations sanctioned investigation to ensure that the United States will comply with human rights laws and agreements established over the last 60 years to fully protect American Indian, Alaskan Native and Hawaiian religious rights.
“Taking away the ability for these men and women to exercise their traditional spiritual practices is the same as saying rehabilitation is not important. It is a mindless, bullying tactic that contributes to recidivism,” she said.
“These actions go way beyond any reasonable level of punitive action and are more accurately described as anti-Indian activities,” said Sharp. “They constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and thus cross the line in terms of U.S. constitutional legality,” she said.

In 2010, the Washington Department of Corrections barred almost all American indigenous prisoners’ religious practices, banned tobacco, reclassified sacred medicines such as sage and sweet grass as non-religious, prohibited foods for traditional meals such as fry bread and buffalo, disallowed native children from attending summer prison powwows, and altered regulations so certain religious items could no longer be securely stored.

“Occasionally, the government-to-government relationship we have worked so hard to implement in Washington State does work,” said Sharp. “Ten tribes petitioned Governor Gregoire, and the Department of Corrections reversed course, consulting with tribal leaders about reforms and reaching an accommodation to restore American indigenous prisoners’ religious rights,” she said.
“But the fact that those bans could take place, even in this state—where we do have a working intergovernmental relationship—did illustrate both the larger pattern of rising restrictions on indigenous prisoners’ rights in this country as well as the importance of consultation with our tribal governments concerning administrative measures that affect our people.  Another important thing this all points out is that, even in Washington, we have to remain ever-vigilant in the protection of all of our traditional values and rights. The state-tribal consultation and reform effort that resulted from this recent transgression by the state gave rise to Huy. We will support its efforts,” said Sharp.
“In the overall picture, we have to conclude that the United States is failing to fulfill its duty to protect the religious freedoms of American indigenous prisoners. There is a pervasive pattern of human rights abuses currently occurring in the United States in violation of both domestic and international law,” said Sharp. “We will oppose it.”
                                                                                

Legal Background

The U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms that indigenous peoples have the right to “manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites and the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects. Other components of this same declaration further guarantee the protection of native tradition and cultural heritage, freedom from discrimination and provide that “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative measures that may affect them.” The United States has signed on to this declaration.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects the right to freedom of religion, including the “freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.” That covenant further states that ethnic and religious minorities “shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, or to profess and practice their own religion.” It also provides that “freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.” Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 22, para. 8 further clarifies that “persons already subject to certain legitimate constraints, such as prisoners, continue to enjoy their right to manifest their religion or belief to the fullest extent compatible with the specific nature of the restraint.”
Domestically, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to the free exercise of religion. The U.S. policy, as articulated in the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 is to “protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions” of indigenous communities. With respect to prisoners, the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act prohibits prison authorities from substantially burdening an inmate’s religious exercise unless in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and accomplished by the least restrictive means. As the United States Supreme Court has recognized, prisoners “do not forfeit all constitutional protections by reason of their conviction and confinement in prison.” Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 545 (1979).