Despite exhaustion from a 15-day strike, Snohomish School District officials, teachers and students are probably riding a bit of a high this second day of school. Soon enough, however, the homework will settle in and the newness will wear off. And that won’t give anyone much time to focus on the next struggle — the Legislature.
January is just around the corner and the state is facing an anticipated $2 billion budget shortfall. Legislators may look at ways to cut education to help fill the gap. District officials and educators must quickly put aside any bitterness and work together to find ways to address the possibility of more cuts.
Snohomish schools are still reeling from a $700,000 cut the Legislature made last year. And district officials will balance the budget for the first year of the new teacher contract with money from the reserve fund — an unfortunate but necessary step to resolve the conflict. But where the money will come from for the following year is still undetermined, said school district spokeswoman J. Marie Merrifield. What is even more frustrating is that officials can’t begin to make those decisions until after the Legislature has made its decisions. District officials could make reductions in one area only to find out the Legislature is making reductions in the same place, Merrifield said.
"That’s the million-dollar question, really," Merrifield said.
Let’s hope it’s not that much.
An independent financial analysis of the district suggested that there are still areas of public education the state could chip away at while still arguing it is funding a basic education, as required by the state constitution. That’s a frightening thought.
Our education system can’t take any more hits from the state. When legislators meet this winter to hammer out the details they must leave education alone. Some school districts are already having a tough enough time passing levies, which aren’t used just for extras anymore. Our state is slipping back into the pattern of using levies to pay for basic aspects of education instead of those perks particular to a district.
In the immediate future, it will be a big enough battle for educators to convince legislators to keep their hands off their budgets. That challenge must be tackled first. Then comes the mountain of equal base-salary pay for teachers and a resolution to the unfairness of levy lids that differ from district to district. These problems must be approached by educators and politicians in stages that don’t overwhelm the state budget, but set tangible goals that achieve results.
We don’t have to solve this state problem overnight, but we must begin to seriously address it.
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