The recent article regarding the Sultan School District’s bond election gives me very significant pause (“With overcrowded schools ‘falling apart,’ Sultan tries bond measure,” The Herald, Feb. 3). As a public educator at the college level, I am appalled that we as a society are still grappling with the issue of funding public education.
Some schools are funded amply, while other districts are left in the condition in which the Sultan schools find themselves. When public schools are funded from property taxes, there will be broad disparities between the funding by district. Many of our smaller public school districts in Snohomish County are entirely unable to support their local schools, and fund them, and not even with the basics, like bathrooms, buildings that are not falling apart, an appropriately sized kitchen, heat and other basic needs. Public education is the right of every child in our country and we are badly failing so many children.
Do we not see the correlation between a quality education, subsequent quality job prospects, and hope? I think that we are not looking at the correlation between these ideals. When we badly neglect so many in our country, and from the standpoint of education in particular, we are faced with what we have now: a complete lack of hope in many portions of our society, rampant addiction and drug use across all sectors of society, and increasing violence in our communities. For many, hope for the future, might alleviate the need for turning to other outlets for coping. There would be another alternative: the opportunity to live a productive life.
Without comprehensive and fundamental funding for public education in all areas, we are failing our children, as we have failed the last generation of children, through the lack of skills, lack of opportunities, and the lack of hope. We, as a society, must do better.
Melissa McKay
Snohomish
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