The news that school superintendents suggest shortening Washington’s 180-day school year as a way to deal with yet more cataclysmic cuts to the education budget grates on the nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. Which is effective in gaining attention. Which we hope was the point.
Spending even less time in class is anathema to education in general, never mind the goal of establishing a stronger system. No one advocates it as an improvement. But it’s an option as an emergency measure because it would at least effect the state’s 295 school districts equally, the superintendents say.
Gov. Chris Gregoire proposes $365 million in cuts to elementary and secondary education. She didn’t include a shorter school year, which could save $125 million, but did endorse slashing $150 million in levy equalization payments to property-poor school districts, The Herald’s Jerry Cornfield reported on Sunday. Cutting the levy equalization would leave wealthy urban areas untouched because they don’t receive a subsidy; the superintendents are united in opposing such cuts.
In Snohomish County, school districts in Arlington, Darrington, Everett, Marysville, Monroe, Snohomish, Sultan and Granite Falls are slated to lose all their equalization funding, Cornfield reported. Lake Stevens is in a group that would lose half of its funding.
It’s difficult to criticize any given suggestion at this point; the budget is that dire. A shorter school year is preferable to the loss of equalization funding. Other states have taken the step of shortening their school years to save money. One way or another, an extremely undesirable short-term solution has to be found.
Easier to criticize, however, is the fact that these cuts and emergencies are no longer a surprise. A budget shortfall seems always to be spiraling out of control. What’s missing, past and present, are workable suggestions for long-term education solutions from the governor, the superintendents, the superintendent of public instruction, the WEA, the Legislature, parents and students.
It’s tough, because any real change means stepping on someone’s toes, or perceived territory.
Who will lead the sensible call to consolidate some of the state’s 295 school districts? It makes sense for smaller, geographically close districts to combine. Having so many districts, each with its own well-paid superintendent and administration, isn’t cost effective. (FYI, former Darrington school superintendent Larry Johnson, who was fired last year, and who has been on paid administrative leave as he appeals his firing, is finally scheduled to have his hearing this week and next.)
Who will push for year-round school, which makes sense economically and socially, like never before?
Who wants to speak up? Who wants the floor now?
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
