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Articles written by Donald Kimball


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  • Nobody using BEAD program

    Donald Kimball, Washington Policy Center|Sep 26, 2024

    In 2021, the Biden Administration passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included a provision to give $42.5 billion to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program to provide under-served and rural areas with internet access. To date, it has connected nobody. The plan required U.S. states and territories to submit plans for investment and deployment by the end of 2023, which all have done. Expected roll out won’t occur until 2026 by most optimistic deadlines. It’s better than nothing, right? Maybe not. When you loo...

  • 50.3% of Washington public school students at grade level in English, 39.7% in Math

    Donald Kimball, Washington Policy Center|Sep 19, 2024

    The 2023-2024 K-12 Report Card has been released by OSPI, and the results continue the pattern of the past few years. Based on Smarter Balanced standardized testing, only 50.3% of students were considered on track in English, 39.7% in Math, and 43.5% in Science. Last year, the scores were 50.7% in English, 39.1% in Math, and 42.9% in Science. These scores indicate there hasn’t been any serious improvement for public school students since the learning loss from school closures during the pandemic. Superintendent Reykdahl has been critical of S...

  • Donald Kimball

    Overturning 'Chevron deference' gives hope to save the internet

    Donald Kimball, Washington Policy Center|Jul 18, 2024

    As my colleague Paul Guppy detailed in a blog post last week and discussed on WPC on the Go, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo et al. weakens regulatory powers from unaccountable bureaucrats. While this has widespread implications, one potential outcome could be reigning in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and their ability to classify the internet as a Title II communications service. Reclassifying the internet from an information service...