More money needed for education? Who knows?

Updated 2/06/03

On Tuesday, January 14, the Washington Education Association and potentially thousands of teachers and school personnel will march at the Capitol in Olympia to ask lawmakers for increased public school funding. We agree with them that an excellent education is one of the most important tools a child needs to become an independent and productive adult.

But before state officials consider allocating more money for K-12 education (which currently accounts for nearly half of the state’s general fund budget), they should think about these important facts and questions:

EDUCATION PERFORMANCE

• According to the standards developed by our state’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), 97 percent of Washington’s schools are “failing” under the new federal No Child Left Behind legislation. Now OSPI is considering revising the scoring system so only 50 percent of the state’s schools will be considered failing.
  
  
• Only 68 percent of Washington’s high school students graduate. Among minorities, the graduation rate is 50 percent.
  
  
• More than half (51 percent) of the students who do graduate from a public high school in our state and attend a community or technical college must enroll in remedial reading, writing or math courses to prepare them for college-level studies.
  
  
• Washington has three transitional bilingual courses. Fewer than ten percent of the students enrolled complete the transition successfully.

EDUCATION FUNDING

• Washington spent $8,648 per public school student in 2000-01 (the latest numbers available). Of that amount, only $3,881-less than half-was used for what the state defines as Basic Education.
  
  
• The state dedicates hundreds of millions of dollars to class size reduction, yet many teachers have overcrowded classrooms. Why? Where is that money and why isn’t it being used to reduce class sizes? What is the average class size in Washington? So far, no one can answer those questions.
  
  
• There are 160,500 K-12 employees and 1,010,167 students in Washington’s public schools. That means there is one K-12 employee for every 6.3 students.
  
  
• There are 58,919 certificated classroom teachers in Washington. That means there is one teacher in the classroom for every 17.1 students. In addition, there are 3,824 certificated staff who work in administrative positions.
  
  
• In total, 62,743 certificated employees and 87,757 “other” employees work in Washington’s K-12 system. What do all of these “other” employees do and how important are these jobs compared to classroom teachers?
  
  
• The average teacher salary in Washington state is $43,480 according to OSPI. When benefits and supplemental contracts are factored in, the average teacher receives total compensation of more than $57,500. The state’s rigid salary structure prohibits excellent teachers from earning more and pays mediocre teachers too much. The WEA is one of the major proponents of this system.
  
  
• Superintendent of Public Instruction Terri Bergeson calls Governor Locke’s proposed budget for education “devastating.” Yet Bergeson refused to comply with the governor’s request that all state agencies evaluate and prioritize their activities within their budgets. Her office failed to submit a recommended budget for the state’s $1.1 billion special education program, and even after a JLARC audit uncovered serious accountability problems with special education funding last year, Bergeson did not attend the audit hearing and failed to follow up on the audit.

Prepared by Bob Williams, President, (360) 956-3482 or effwa@effwa.org

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org