25 signatures reached
To: Jay Inslee, Pramila Jayapal, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, Liz Berry, Noel Frame, Julia Reed, Dan Strauss, Brent Jones, Sarah Clark, Fred Podesta
WA State Must Fully Fund a Minimum Standard of Education NOW
To Our Elected Representatives and Decision Makers,
I was asked to donate almost $700 to my Seattle Public Schools elementary school to fund nursing time, literacy intervention support, math intervention support, limited advanced learning support, curriculum support, the arts, library books, and more. I’m mad that Seattle Public Schools has to create a budget with known funding gaps in the essential staff and services they provide our schools that families have to fill.
Washington State, the federal government, the City of Seattle, and SPS need to work together to fully fund an updated Quality Education Council plan for elementary schools across the state by 2025.
This funding must address:
I was asked to donate almost $700 to my Seattle Public Schools elementary school to fund nursing time, literacy intervention support, math intervention support, limited advanced learning support, curriculum support, the arts, library books, and more. I’m mad that Seattle Public Schools has to create a budget with known funding gaps in the essential staff and services they provide our schools that families have to fill.
Washington State, the federal government, the City of Seattle, and SPS need to work together to fully fund an updated Quality Education Council plan for elementary schools across the state by 2025.
This funding must address:
- Eliminating caps on special education funding to match legally-required resource costs
- Identifying highly capable services as special education so all student needs are resourced
- Removing local government-specific revenue caps to allow local communities to address their unique education needs
- Correct teacher allocation funding to reflect costs for actual state-mandated class sizes (current "follow the student" model creates unusable budgets that result in 30+ student 2nd grade elementary classrooms)
- Reading intervention and math intervention services 4+ days per week at every elementary school (non-poverty students aren't exempt from learning challenges)
- Credentialed nursing services in elementary schools 3+ days per week (Tier 4 SPS school PTAs spend thousands to provide just 2 days of on-site nursing support)
- Art and Music Instruction in elementary schools 7+ days per month
- Credentialed social worker services in elementary schools 3+ days per week
- Daily playground supervision at elementary schools (Tier 4 SPS school PTAs spend thousands to ensure safe playground environments for their students)
- State-run (and funded) continuing education programs for teachers and staff
This is a critical problem for your constituents and communities. WA State now spends only 43% of its budget on education. To avoid an actual FAILURE of the Seattle Public School system, you must act now.
Why is this important?
Public education is essential to a successful citizen community, workforce, and democracy. Districts across the country are failing; don't let revenue-rich Washington State underfund education and destroy public schools to be replaced by inequitable private schools and substandard charter schools. All children deserve a safe elementary education that meets their needs. There is enough funding to make this happen and we need to hold them accountable that they prioritize fixing our education funding crisis this legislative session.