By Tracey

I got another email from my principal.  This time, it said, "FYI" and included a link to Randy Dorn's statement about the senate's budget proposal.  Both the house and senate released their supplemental budget proposals for these hard economic times.  They released them with apologies, recognizing the sacrifice we all must make when faced with deep cuts to social services during a time when cuts have already been made.  

Dorn's statement is sobering.  He lists some startling facts, one of which is that the state would fund $3,815 per student, which is just $108 shy of what we provided our students more than 16 years ago.  $650 million would be cut from K-12 education, bringing class sizes up just a touch below what's legal for K-3 students and at the legal limit for 4th-12th grade.  2,500 teachers would lose their jobs, not to mention the huge loss of para-educators, janitors, and other important people who help make a school run smoothly.  The cuts are severe; and the impact would be huge in classrooms across the state.

Classrooms will be more crowded with students and desks, the students increasingly tired from longer bus rides to school and back, the teachers busier with more students with individual needs to meet.  ELL students would lose tutor time to help them understand what's being taught; and the floor would be messier with, perhaps, a once a week scheduled vacuuming.  These are tough times, and we all know it. We have to sacrifice.  It's not like our legislators want to make these cuts.  They're just as troubled about them as we are. 

What troubles me is I remember when the times were good.  My first year of teaching was in 1997, during the dot-com bubble.  During those "good times" I remember all 28 of my first graders and my half-hour, twice a week LAP aide.  That was the largest my class ever got.  It dipped slightly, down to 26 or 25.  There were a few years where I even got an aide for an hour each day to help with some of the workload.  But, that was he best it ever got.  Through all those years, I still had to beg my families to please buy us boxes of tissues for our runny noses and pony up for field trips, while I dipped into my own salary to buy books and school supplies.

Where's the assurance that once we get through these tough economic times, we'll return to making education a priority?  And if we do, what will that look like?  How will I know it when I see it?  The truth is, I don't think we have ever made education a priority.  If we truly valued education, school districts wouldn't be taking the state to court for under-funding education.  Randy Dorn cites this in his statement, referring to Judge John Erlick, a King County Superior Court judge who ruled that the levels of public funding are out of compliance with the state constitution for fully funding basic education. (Read Tom's post, Paramount Duty.)  He ruled that this was true even back in 2007.  And if you remember, 2007 was before the economic downturn.  

What this all comes down to, and no one likes to talk about it, is state revenue, a.k.a. taxes. During the good times, we complained about how much the government took.  Now during the bad times, we all feel the pinch even more.  The legislature is looking to raise taxes for some and close tax loopholes, something no one whose job is solely dependent upon votes wants to do.  But this is only to keep our heads above water.  When are we going to see the changes in our tax structure that truly demonstrate we value education?

It seems we have a selective memory of our nation’s
history.  We embrace our
forefathers and their bravery for standing up to King George III and rejecting
his unfair taxes.  But, we have to
remember, that’s because the colonists couldn’t affect his policy.  They weren’t getting the services they
were paying for.  The taxes we pay
today equate to services – services we all enjoy.  And one of these services is to have a well-educated youth.  We all benefit from having a well-educated youth; and it’s a service I want to pay for. 
It does us no good to pretend that it’s patriotic to reject tax
increases.  Nor does it serve us to
continue with the status quo, cramming 25 to 28 first graders together in one
classroom with one teacher to provide quality education.  It takes sacrifice from all of us,
during the good times and the bad.