We thank the PDC of WA...

We thank the PDC of WA for the detailed maintenance of its political contribution database. Although the PDC has its critics, it is the essence of democracy to understand who is driving the political process. Sorting by contributions for all Washington elections in 2012, these are the contributions over $100K to date (August 4th, 2012) :

Name	Contributor	Date	Amount
YES ON 1240 WA COALITION FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS	GATES BILL	2012-06-19	800000.00
VOTERS WANT MORE CHOICES - SAVE THE 2/3RDS (MIKE FAGAN)	ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON BUSINESS PAC	2012-06-29	265000.00
NEW APPROACH WA	STEVES RICK	2012-07-17	250000.00
YES ON 1240 WA COALITION FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS	GATES BILL	2012-06-07	200000.00
VOTERS WANT MORE CHOICES - SAVE THE 2/3RDS (MIKE FAGAN)	ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON BUSINESS PAC	2012-05-30	185000.00
SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTL UNION WA ST COUNCIL PAC	SEIU WASHINGTON STATE COUNCIL	2012-04-24	150000.00
YES ON 1240 WA COALITION FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS	BEZOS JACKIE	2012-06-13	125000.00
YES ON 1240 WA COALITION FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS	BEZOS MIKE	2012-06-13	125000.00
NEW APPROACH WA	AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF WA FOUNDATION	2012-07-19	100000.00
NEW APPROACH WA	STEVES RICK	2012-06-29	100000.00
OUR WASHINGTON	SEIU 1199 NW	2012-07-07	100000.00
SEIU HEALTHCARE 1199 NW PAC	SEIU HEALTHCARE 1199 NW	2012-06-26	100000.00
VOTERS WANT MORE CHOICES - SAVE THE 2/3RDS (MIKE FAGAN)	WASHINGTON BEER & WINE DISTRIBUTORS ASSOCIATION	2012-05-11	100000.00
WA UNITED FOR MARRIAGE	SEIU WASHINGTON STATE COUNCIL	2012-05-24	100000.00
YES ON 1240 WA COALITION FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS	BEZOS JACKIE	2012-06-22	100000.00
YES ON 1240 WA COALITION FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS	BEZOS MIKE	2012-06-22	100000.00

An enormous amount of money is being pumped into "Yes on 1240" which is an initiative to bring "public charter schools" to Washington. Our society these days  is very caught up in monitoring teaching and encouraging student testing and education reform.  For example, the Anacortes School District has received a $500,000 grant from the W.K. Kellog Foundation that intends to create a "cycle of Inquiry embedded professional development system for teachers".  This pilot is intended to become a state wide evaluation system for all WA teachers.  The actor Matt Damon recently gave a speech about his educational experience, citing the fact that all of the great lessons given him by his public school teachers would not have been uncovered by a standardized test. His speech is worth  a listen: