education funding

Something is happening out there.

While unemployment remains high and the economy down, folks are not looking inward and holding tight to their wallets. They're passing school levies. They are thinking about the importance of the next generation of kids, other peoples' kids, for the most part.

Ballots were counted all over the state yesterday, and all over the state yesterday the results were pretty much the same. School levies passed. In Seattle. In Vancouver. In Yakima. In Everett and Edmonds.

And the words school officials were using were "stellar" and "stupendous." The support in many cases was well over the 60 percent mark. In Seattle, it was more than 71 percent in favor of two measures worth more than $700 million to pay for improved classroom offerings and construction projects.

So legislators, listen up. See that you take this lesson to heart. Your constituents are willing to open their wallets and hearts because they know the value of education to restart the economy and build futures. When it comes to funding K-12 and higher education in the state budget, see that you do the same.

-- Rita Hibbard

It’s time to stand up for education funding.

What with a judge telling the state it’s been failing in its constitutional duty to fund K-12 education, and college students and staff across the state walking out of the classroom to speak out against budget cuts in higher ed, it’s heady stuff.

“State funding is not ample, it is not stable, and it is not dependable,” said King County Superior Court John Erlick in his ruling that the state has failed in its duty to provide for the education of school children. He ordered the Legislature to determine the cost of a basic education, then pay for it.

That sounds simple enough, but the devil is in those details, and the formula has been evaded for 30 years, as Erlick also pointed out in his ruling. He also warned lawmakers  the state’s fiscal crisis is not a good enough reason to ignore the state constitution.

The case was brought by a coalition of parents, educators and community leaders. But the state may appeal the ruling, The Seattle Times’ Linda Shaw reported.

That was the one part of the decision that the state's attorneys found comforting.

"He left the remedy for whatever ails the system in the Legislature's hands, and we believe that's where it belongs," said Assistant Attorney General Bill Clark.

But while parents were ecstatic, the joy was shared by the state’s leading educator, state superintendent of education Randy Dorn, Shaw wrote.

"It's a great day for kids.