Wear Red for Public Ed Nov. 28

What’s at Stake, Washington?

The legislative sessions starts on Monday, November 28, and you know your representatives are going to want to get done with the cuts in a hurry so they don’t miss out on Christmas shopping and family vacations, so before they sit down at the table let them hear from you.  With nearly 2 billion dollars in cuts looming, the biggest piece of the pie left is the future generations of the state, education.  Already I face 170 students or more every year, with less time, less money, fewer books, and more high needs.  In my district alone, we have trimmed every piece of fat there is.  We cut a generation of teachers; we have minor Para -support, dispersed our ELL program and have our specialists playing TWISTER trying to cover as many schools as possible, same with our librarians and music teachers.  What more is there to cut?

Well, some ideas on the table include:

·         Eliminating Levy Equalization (that means the balance of money we are actually SUPPOSE to legally get – voter approved and everything will just disappear)

·         Increasing class sizes grades 4-12 – You try getting more than 36 adult sized students into a portable and see how you can move around.

·         Eliminating Funding for all-day Kindergarten – What? This still exists?  Puyallup cut it two years ago; you can’t even PAY in my district to have your student go to all day kindergarten.

·         Reduce the school year by 3%, 5 days.  – Already I get to spend about 5 minutes a day with each student I see, wonder how that will impact my struggling readers and the state demand to “cover” curriculum.

·         Imposing an additional 1% salary reduction for K-12 employees – our principals haven’t gotten a raise in 3 years, and my salary went down when extra programs were eliminated decreasing my opportunities for stipends.

·         Reducing Healthcare – On my “Cadillac” plan, I already pay $600.00 per month to cover an underemployed college graduate and myself.

·         Eliminating state funding for transportation – In Washington?  Where it’s dark when we start, dark when we end and rains constantly?  Glad my kid won’t be walking along the roads that have no sidewalks at 6 am to be to school by 7.

·         Eliminating National Board stipends – I won’t call them bonuses because they’re not.  They’re earned, not given like a prize at the county fair for hitting the right balloon.  This is the ONLY thing Washington State does to increase the single factor that guarantees success for students, having a HIGHLY qualified teacher in the classroom.

So, maybe it’s just me, but I think not only do “cuts hurt kids,” but cuts also: drive good educators from the profession, discourage possible good educators from entering the profession, put stress on families, oh and here in the state of Washington, cuts are unconstitutional.  It’s time for the state to increase revenue and maintain the basic education that is guaranteed under our state constitution. 

Washington statistically has the highest number of college educated adults in the U.S.  We have the highest number percentage of library usage, the percentage of math and science (outside of NASA and MIT).  How come we’re not smart enough to figure out that education is an investment?

#cutshurtkids