Commentary: Work isn’t done to provide schools our kids need

By John Lovick

What kind of future will we give our children and grandchildren?

That’s the real question when it comes to our public schools.

I’m proud of how lawmakers put another $1 billion to run our schools this year — and another $1 billion toward building new classrooms and schools around the state.

Yet our work isn’t done. Students graduating today are taking jobs in companies that compete on the global market with corporations in Germany, Japan, China and India.

So how can we keep pushing for our students to get the best possible education?

Strong communities: Schools bind us together. We coach each other’s sons and daughters on soccer and softball teams. Entire neighborhoods and towns show up at school plays and Friday night football games — because even after your kids graduate, you still feel connected to the school and want to support those kids.

The experience of Tacoma’s public schools show how important it is to have strong community ties. The Tacoma Public Schools were once labeled as a “dropout factory,” with only 55 percent of students graduating high school in four years.

According to reporting by Will James at KNKX (88.5 FM) public radio, “Nearly two-thirds of Tacoma students live in poverty and 59 percent are students of color.” Instead of focusing inward, school leaders reached out to more than 200 businesses, non-profits and others organizations outside the school for Graduate Tacoma.

Today, the graduation rate in Tacoma schools is 85 percent, and they’re aiming to do even better.

That’s the power of working together, as a team, to help our kids succeed.

Great teachers: You can see where things have gone wrong in the recent teacher strikes that happened in West Virginia, Arizona, Colorado and other states.

Those states show that it’s impossible to hire and keep great teachers if you chronically underpay them, because they have families and mortgages, too. Arizona teacher Christina Carter told CNN she could make $50,000 more per year by driving an extra 10 minutes to teach in California.

Thankfully, teachers here in Washington state are getting better pay. But fair pay isn’t the whole story. For years, some think tanks and politicians have tried to score political points by demonizing teachers. That’s a toxic strategy that only hurts our public schools and kids.

Teachers are a lot like police officers and firefighters. Every functioning society needs them, and each of those professions has to pay decently — and be respected — so that young people deciding on a career pick a life of public service.

A bridge to higher education: Around the year 1900, the governor of Washington state convinced lawmakers that the world was changing from farms to factories. To help our state prosper, they passed The Barefoot Schoolboy Act to provide a high school education to all students.

Today, a high school degree isn’t enough to give our kids a better life than what we had. Sooner or later, we need to expand K-12 to K-13, so that every student in our public schools gets at least one year of college education.

That doesn’t have to mean one year toward a four-year undergraduate degree. A one-year college certificate means the difference between minimum wage jobs and a middle-class life. Our state isn’t alone in facing a shortage of skilled workers in health care, technology, law enforcement, early education and the skilled trades.

Our businesses are also begging for us to address the shortage of skilled workers. Doing this right can help our economy and students in every corner of the state.

I truly believe that education is the civil rights issue of our time. Washington state has a long history of being a great place to live, work and do business — and having a great public school system is the foundation to all that we treasure.

Let’s keep working together to give every child, rich or poor, the education they need to succeed in school and life.

Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, represents the 44th Legislative District. He previously served as Snohomish County Sheriff and County Executive.