Local supporters of Initiative 884 loaded a school bus July 2 bound for Olympia with petitions containing 280,000 signatures, enough to put the measure on the fall ballot and potentially provide relief to all levels of public education, including area community colleges.
Some area school officials said the initiative’s benefits would be welcomed.
Michele Graves, public information officer at Edmonds Community College, said the school has more students than it receives funds for from the state.
“Our goal is to keep college open for everyone,” Graves said. “It is definitely a concern we have increasing numbers of students and decreasing numbers of funding.”
Graves said some transfer students have been deferred while others cannot enroll in classes, making it difficult to graduate on time. She also said the college anticipates the largest high school graduating class in 2010. “We need to find a way to obtain adequate funding for higher education in our state,” Graves said.
The initiative would create an education trust fund drawing money from a sales tax increase of one-cent per dollar. The money would provide many benefits to public schools, including reduced class size as well as expansion of Promise Scholarships for the top 30 percent of high school graduates and training opportunities for higher education students.
Judy Yu, public information officer at Shoreline Community College said all area community colleges are facing over-enrollment issues.
“Every student comes with an allocation from the state and their tuition,” Yu said. “So every college is given a cap in the number of allocations they get.”
Yu said once the school meets its cap, it receives only the tuition from extra students. She said many new students are adults wishing to retrain for a profession or expand their education.
“Education is the driver of the economy,” Yu said. “Community colleges are doing a lot to retrain adults, so that is one of the reasons why our numbers are increasing.”
Shoreline Community College President Holly Moore said faculty have not received a raise in two years; staff have not received a raise for three.
“The way colleges are funded is we have no ability to raise levies or bonds, we are totally dependent on state allocations,” Moore said. “Right now, our faculty salaries are lower than K-12, and the universities.”
Moore said restrictions on salaries make it difficult to hire new faculty.
Rob Workman, ASB President at Everett Community College, said classes have been over enrolled for the past five years and the initiative would help meet demands for instructors.
“With the increasing population of students that will be going to college there will be less places for them to go due to high demand for education in Washington,” Workman said.
He also said the sales tax will enable all state residents to help fund education.
“I believe coming from the people in the sales tax has been needed for a long time,” Workman said. “It gives everyone a chance to help provide education for future children.”
Not all are in favor of a sales-tax hike.
Shoreline Community College President of Student Government Sean Keller said sales tax should not be used to pay for education.
“It is a regressive tax, putting a burden on the lower class and the people who need access to higher education,” Keller said.
Keller also said students are concerned money generated from the tax increase will be spent in other areas.
“(The initiative) only states (the legislature) cannot spend lower than what is spent on education now,” Keller said. “Although it is very tempting, it is a lot of money and it would really help, we feel on principle we should not go for regressive tax to pay for education.”
He also added that despite the cut programs and scalebacks, the administration at SCC worked well with what funds were available.
Yu said regarding education funding, Washington state needs to be at the level of other states across the nation.
“The state has done a good job but if you look and compare us to the rest of the nation, we’re below average,” Yu said.
Natalie Reber, communications director for Citizens for the Education Trust Fund, said Washington state must address its cuts to education.
“We’re facing a crisis in education funding in Washington state and this is the only solution on the table,” Reber said. “Our kids cannot wait.”
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