Small Town News

Elected officials must live up to constitution

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Just what does "paramount duty" mean when it comes to funding our K-12 education system? This is a question that every citizen should ask in light of the reductions in funding that our elected leaders continue to impose.

Our state constitution, Article IX - Education, states, "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders..."

For two decades our elected officials have been "studying" the state's responsibility to fully fund basic education. Meanwhile, with three lawsuits and two judges' decisions, it is clear that our state is not taking care of business. Most recently, Judge John Erlick ruled that, "paramount means preeminent, supreme, and more important than all others," and that, "state funding is not ample, it is not stable and it is not dependable. He further stated that, "without funding, reform legislation for basic education may be an empty promise."

Our elected officials continue to pass laws that are nothing more than unfunded mandates and have no connection to student achievement.

One of the tenets that this great nation was founded on was the belief that a well-educated population is the foundation for our democracy, our economy and the American dream, and that public education plays a critical role in promoting equality.

Every day in our schools we have dedicated teachers, classified staff and administrators working diligently to ensure that all of our children reach their potential. We have made great gains. We rank above the national average in national testing, we have made continuous progress in improving student performance on state and district assessments. Rigor has increased and more advanced placement and honors classes are being offered than ever before. Our graduation rate is one of the highest in the nation. How did we do this? With hard work and fundamentally changing the delivery of teaching and learning, by implementing processes based on best practices and evidenced-based research.

But educators are getting discouraged. We continue to have more accountability placed on us without the necessary resources to accomplish what needs to be done.

If we truly believe that educating our children will make our country stronger in order to maintain the most powerful democracy of any nation in history, then we need to insist that our elected officials live up to the "paramount duty" of the constitution of the state of Washington and fully and amply fund K-12 basic education



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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