Message from LWSD PTSA President

Olympia Washington

In these tough economic times,

the Washington State Legislature is continuing to work on reforming our state’s education system. The Basic Education Finance Task Force came back to the legislature with a plan which was encompassed in two bills, but unfortunately these bills were dropped due to lack of support. At this time there are meetings happening to come to a compromise between all of the stakeholders to ensure that everyone’s needs are met, most importantly the children who are affected. The following statement was issued by the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) PTSA President, Wendy DeLong. Please contact your local legislators to voice your opinion on these issues, they need your input to ensure that the bills proposed meet the needs of all involved.

“If you have been following events in Olympia, you know that the original bills that represented the work of the Basic Education Finance Task Force were both dropped. They were replaced by 2 bills of intent, one in the house and one in the senate. These are skeleton bills and do not contain any significant content. Their purpose is to affirm that action will be taken in this session regarding an issue, which in this case is reform of our state’s education system.

You should also know that the teachers’ union (Washington Education Association – WEA) mounted a strong opposition to the original bills, instead supporting the proposals of the Full Funding Coalition. That legislation called for more money, but did not change the structure of our current system. Rather than get into a battle between education factions, the legislature replaced the original legislation with the bills of intent. These are (House Bill) HB2261 and (Senate Bill) SB6048.

A week ago, in Olympia, representatives from all of the education-related organizations were brought into a meeting. This began a series of meetings with all stakeholders to develop a plan for education reform that will be acceptable to all. The Washington State PTA is one of those organizations involved in these meetings. Some of the other stakeholders include representatives from the State Board of Education, the League of Education Voters, Stand for Children, the WEA, the Children’s Alliance, the Washington Roundtable, the Partnership for Learning, Seattle and Tacoma Public Schools, the Governor’s Office, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Professional Educator Standards Board, the Washington Association of School Administrators, the Association of Washington School Principals, and the Public School Employees of Washington.

As you may imagine, with all these parties involved, working out a compromise bill is going to take time and work. In general, the reports on these meetings have been favorable. There are many points of agreement. The debate on other points has been passionate, but respectful. There seems to be a desire from all to get the job done and there is a cooperative spirit. This is all good news. What is now difficult for us is that these meeting are being held behind closed doors with strict confidentiality being imposed. It is understandable, as they are dealing with some very difficult, sometimes emotional, issues and need to speak frankly with each other without fear of their words becoming public and possibly creating unnecessary turmoil. So at this time, the rest of us are left in the dark until they have results they wish to make public. It also means we must trust our PTA leaders to represent our interests, even though we cannot see or hear what they are doing.” – Wendy DeLong, LWSD PTSA President