Claudia Rowe

Seattle

Editorial Board Writer at Seattle Times

WA State Book Award winner. Seattle Times Editorial Board writer. Next book: WARDS OF THE STATE, on foster care and the criminal legal system @ABRAMSbooks.

Articles

How did the Seattle School Board lose its way?

1 month ago | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

After 34 years of writing about education, I’m pretty convinced that everyone who volunteers their time to help run public schools starts out wanting to do right by kids, even if those good intentions sometimes go off the rails. That is especially true in Seattle, where the middle class has long supported public education, despite this city’s unusually high rate of private school enrollment.
How WA superintendents are stepping up with school funding rescue plan | The Seattle Times

1 month ago | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

A group of school superintendents aims to steer Washington state in a totally new direction on education. Outsiders are watching with interest.
OPINION: Red flags popped up everywhere, but now two children are dead

Feb 14, 2025 | tri-cityherald.com | Claudia Rowe

Jemiere Robinson's murder is one of the most horrific child deaths King County prosecutors have ever seen. But being an outlier doesn't mean the case of a 14-year-old apparently tortured to death by his own mother has no lessons to offer about holes in our child welfare system that threaten many more kids. Last year's fatal stabbing of 4-year-old Ariel Garcia at the hands of his mom also points to a serious, correctable, deficiency.
'Do the right thing,' says grieving dad of Seattle student as murders spike

Nov 15, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

It would be easy for most of Seattle to forget them. Each of the sixboys killed by gunfire in the city this year was too young to have made much of a mark on the world beyond their friends and family. The eldest was just 17; the next two, 16; two were high school freshmen. And the youngest had just graduated middle school. Ten months since the first of these killings, and not one person has been arrested. It’s not for lack of witnesses.
Charters were supposed to be labs for school improvement. What lessons do they offer? | Claudia Rowe

Aug 30, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

For just a moment, if possible, let’s set aside the arguments that hold charter schools as an existential threat to traditional public education and focus on one of the primary reasons they were allowed to take root in Washington a decade ago: to serve as education labs. Freed from the regulations binding traditional public schools, charters might be able to demonstrate other ways of reaching kids, the thinking went.
The state broke its promise to jailed youth. We’ll all pay for it | Claudia Rowe

Jul 31, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

When 43 young men living at the Green Hill juvenile lockup were abruptly handcuffed and sent to state prison last month, lots of people surely assumed they were the worst of the worst — unrepentant and irredeemable. After all, the state Department of Children, Youth and Families argued that conditions at Green Hill were so dangerous they had no choice. The atmosphere was a tinderbox about to explode, officials said. To get control they needed fewer inmates.
School truancy crisis means more than missed classes

Apr 5, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

Sixteen years ago, while driving south on Route 167, Terrell Dorsey had a moment. He was a middle-aged father of four, crying in his car on the way to work. The job selling electronics wasn’t terrible. But earning minimum wage at 52 years old was not the life Dorsey had imagined. He’d attended good schools in Portland and, as a youngster, excelled. Dorsey, however, was not a big kid, and in high school he got bullied.
A law protecting youth rights is blocking justice for Mobarak Adam's family | Claudia Rowe

Mar 15, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

For nearly two months there has been silence around the violent death of a ninth grader across the street from his West Seattle high school. No details about exactly how 15-year-old Mobarak Adam was shot, nor who was responsible, though police have a pretty good idea who was there. While the King County medical examiner ruled the boy’s Jan.
Public rejects hate after desecration of Jackie Robinson statue | Claudia Rowe

Feb 5, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

It’s hard to imagine that the savage destruction of a statue symbolizing bravery and breaking racial barriers would offer any kernel of hope for humanity. But this is one of those times when it’s nice to be wrong. I would not have expected that a hunk of molded bronze could get me so worked up. But as all Americans have seen these past few years, statues of historical figures have impact beyond surface aesthetics. They speak to our deepest values.
Student discipline: Are schools equipped to handle behavioral extremes? | The Seattle Times

Nov 24, 2023 | seattletimes.com | Claudia Rowe

Three recent cases of school discipline show how far we are from the days of back talk and brawls. Now it can be a matter of life and death.