State Rep. Skip Priest (R-District 30) attended Tuesday’s school board meeting to give an update about the legislative session and his newest education reform group, the Quality Education Council.
Priest was appointed the position after the passage of House Bill 2261. That bill required the formation of the group to come up with a plan for education reform and recommendations for what type of reform was needed.
Much of the report was based on the Basic Education Taskforce, of which Priest was a participant.
The results, Priest said, where “not very surprising for the passionate group of advocates who sit on that council.”
The group spent the past several months working on their recommendations — and say now is the time for action.
“Move quickly rather than slowly on something we’ve studied to death,” Priest said.
Among these recommendations:
• Not reducing overall K-12 funding, and putting 50 percent of any new state revenue to basic education.
• A baseline funding structure needs to be implemented. House Bill 2261 should be amended to include transportation costs.
• Schools need to be properly funded for maintenance, supplies and operating costs, including textbooks, technology, library, professional development and utilities.
One of Priest’s biggest points about their recommendations was that early learning needs to be added into basic education so that it can be protected.
Also of particular importance to this area: All-day kindergarten should be funded, and K-3 class sizes should contain about 15 students per teacher, especially in high poverty schools, Priest said.
“It is our constant responsibility to determine exactly what is necessary for every child to have education,” Priest said. “That is not negotiable.”
However, funding any of these changes has still not been fully addressed. In Gov. Christine Gregoire’s first proposed budget, she said it was “the worst I’ve ever suggested,” Priest said. In her second version, she lessened the $400 million in cuts down to $185 million. However, that is only short term and there are many more cuts to come. Sally McLean, chief financial officer for the Federal Way School District, is already estimating a budget shortfall of anywhere up to $12 million in funding from the state.
