Lack of funding has meant unequal access to education | Editorial
Published 11:36 am Tuesday, June 9, 2015
On Saturday, the intersection in town was quite a scene, with honking, shouting and sign waving. Vashon’s teachers thankfully haven’t walked out of class like they have in 60-some other districts in the state — their absence would be a hardship for our small district. But they were right to go public with the same concern that educators around the state have been speaking out about: the lack of meaningful progress by our state to fully fund education.
A flier handed out during the one-hour event gave some insight into the sorry state of education funding in Washington. The state Constitution dictates that the state fund public education. However, if the Vashon School District relied only on state money, the flier explains, programs at the island’s elementary and middle schools would be lacking. At the high school, students might take only five classes a day instead of six. They wouldn’t have the opportunity to take the AP classes sought by college admissions offices, and there would be few upper-level science and math options. There would also be fewer chances for students to study art, music and foreign languages, and class sizes would likely be larger.
But this isn’t the case on Vashon. As the state has underfunded public education the last few decades, Vashon has bridged the gap with local property tax levies. During the recent funding crisis, donations collected by the Vashon Schools Foundation prevented painful cuts.
Many school districts like ours now get up to one-third of their funding from local levies, and more and more are establishing foundations as well. But some communities don’t have this ability. Not all districts have the property tax base to bolster their schools, and some have made those painful cuts. Three years ago, the state Supreme Court found that this unequal funding situation is unconstitutional. While at its core the McCleary decision was about the state’s duty to fund schools, it was also about equal access to education.
Most would agree Vashon’s schools still aren’t flush with cash — textbooks are old, many teachers are underpaid and classrooms are making do with less than they need. But we should also be uncomfortable with a system where children living in more affluent communities like ours might get a better education. It’s difficult to right this funding mess with a divided Legislature, and the picture is made even more complex by a class-size measure lawmakers must also contend with. What is clear is that the urgency to fix a broken system, marked by a Supreme Court ruling three years ago, has not been met with action in Olympia. Facing a looming deadline and weary educators, law makers should agree soon on a plan to give schools in our state the funding they need.
