Statements from candidates Stanford, Thannisch on funding schools

By Evan Smith

Incumbent Democratic 1st Legislative District State Rep. Derek Stanford and Republican challenger Neil Thannisch recently sent statements about how the legislature should provide full support for basic education to comply with the 2012 McCleary decision by the State Supreme Court.

The two candidates are running on the Nov. 8 general-election ballot for the position in the state House of Representatives that Stanford has held for three two-year terms.

The two responded to a question about how the state should provide money for full support for schools as ordered by the court.

The 1st Legislative District includes most of Mountlake Terrace, all of Brier and Bothell, north Kirkland, unincorporated areas of King County between Bothell and Kirkland, and unincorporated areas of Snohomish County north and east of Bothell including the Maltby area.

Here are statements from the two candidates in the order their names will appear on the ballot and in the voters’ pamphlet:

Derek Stanford (Prefers Democratic Party) —

We must fully and sustainably fund education in this state, and it must be done now. I have voted for legislation to move forward quickly to meet the McCleary mandate for fully funding our schools; unfortunately, the Senate rejected that approach. I think Olympia should move boldly on this, and the incredible urgency to properly fund our schools should be felt by every legislator.

We should close outdated corporate tax breaks that cost us millions but don’t help our economy. We will need to consider ideas like levy swaps and capital gains tax. My principles are that the solution must provide reliable and full funding for our schools, and our revenue system should be less regressive – working families and the middle class are already paying more than their fair share.

This work is critical. We need smaller class sizes, less time testing and more time teaching, and more help with academic achievement gaps. We also need to protect other investments in opportunity for kids, like early learning and higher education. As one of the few legislators with a child in our public schools, I believe it is essential to live up to our paramount duty and fully fund education now.

Neil Thannisch (Prefers Republican Party) —

I have raised three children in our local public schools. We all have common goals for education:

• The best education possible for each individual child given their unique capabilities.

• The best facilities and resources feasible to aid in the education of our children.

• Highly competitive wages for our teachers.

• The lowest tax burden on families.

Each of these goals compete for resources out of the same limited pool of money. To make it more challenging, 40 percent of our current education spending goes to “non-instructional” costs.

Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court issued the McCleary decision declaring we must ‘amply’ fund education to comply with the state’s Constitution. Our Democrat-led House of Representatives have failed our children.

We need innovative ideas to achieve the best learning environments to keep our children competitive in the global economy. These ideas will require a change in personnel in Olympia. Our children need solutions now.

My plan is to propose and pass bills that ensure we use taxpayer money responsibly while moving to a system that fully funds education. We must eliminate the need for levies and increased taxes. Our families are why we must restore the House to the will of the people.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.