The Seattle Times: Ill-intentioned and misguided
In today’s Seattle Times appears an editorial regarding Initiative 88 on which voters will have their say come the primary election. The Times comes out against the initiative with this dose of verbal tough-love:
Who could be against smaller class sizes and new arts and music programs? In this case, this page is, because it is irresponsible to create new needs and costs when the district cannot pay for current ones.
So, basically, The Times says we should punish the teachers, students, and their parents for the financial failures of the school district by continuing to under-fund every aspect of public education in the city. How dare the teacher’s union ask for more of our hard-earned money to fund their nefarious deeds, The Times seems to say.
As the parent of a 1st grader in an over-crowded, south-end public school I say bullshit, Seattle Times. The Seattle Public Schools are so poorly funded right now they can barely keep things afloat. It’s a tragedy that Seattle, “one of the most-educated and wealthiest cities in the nation” as pointed out in the editorial, has such a crappy public school system. The Times says we should punish the people who rely on that system to prove a point about fiscal responsibility.
The editorial goes on to say we should look for help from the state Legislature:
A better target for proponents of I-88 is the state Legislature. Washington state’s constitution calls for the state to bear primary duty for education funding. A huge opportunity lies in Gov. Christine Gregoire’s group of education panels, Washington Learns.
The fact is that education funding in Washington is beyond dismal compared to other states. Washington ranks 46th in the nation in class size; 42nd in per-pupil education spending; and currently spends $548 less per student than it did 15 years ago. The state is failing at it’s responsibility. We cannot continue to look toward Olympia to solve our problems. In this wealthy and well-educated city, we can do the right thing and take responsibility for our schools, build them up, support them financially, and volunteer our time to make them better. And step one is to not take away more funds.
I say, vote for I-88 not because I tell you to, or because the Seattle Times tells you not to, do it so my 1st grader and her classmates don’t have to try to learn in a classroom of 30 kids, with no after-school programs or childcare, and over-worked, under-paid teachers.
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