Small Town News

Make tough decisions for sake of education

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There has been much dialog about the state's failure to live up to their constitutional duty to fund public education under Article IX of the state constitution.

The state constitution states that it is the "paramount duty" of the state and further requires, in very specific wording, that public education be "amply" funded. In reading the wording in the constitution it is obvious that our forefathers understood that to sustain the type of participative democracy defined in our state constitution you needed to have an educated and informed citizenry.

Throughout the years the state has struggled with meeting the intent of the constitution, both from an adequacy and equitability standpoint. In 1977, the Basic Education Act of 1977 was passed to define what constituted a basic education (adequacy) and to provide an equitable level of funding to meet the needs of all students. In the past 30-plus years the state has continued to struggle with meeting the intent of the constitution and in a recent court case, McCleary v. State, Judge McCleary ruled that the state had failed in its duty to adequately fund public education.

The question becomes, "How does our state meet the intent of the constitution with the economic conditions we are currently experiencing?" We don't do this by having our legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, spending two weeks of the special session pointing fingers at each other and placing blame for the special session. We also don't do it by holding the funding of public education hostage to a decision on workman's compensation.

What needs to be done, based on the economic forecast, is to focus on the constitution and recognize that there is only one paramount duty defined--public education--and make the best fiscal decisions possible within the current economic environment. Our legislators will have to reduce social programs, take a hard look at exemptions or consider cuts to pension programs - all things that have a human impact. The alternative is taking away the opportunity for every child to experience a quality education.

It is indeed a tough economic time requiring tough legislative decisions right now rather than gimmicks to balance the budget or decisions that force districts to negotiate 3 percent cuts with their unions. If we must "do our share" then stand tall as our elected representatives and do what the constitution requires of you and create polices that will meet the needs of our greatest state resource--our children. They are our future!



Copyright 2011 Cheney Free Press, Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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