Pro / Con
Con: Vote 'no' to more of the same

By Marsha Richards
Special to The Times

Marsha Richards

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Thirteen years ago, our state published "Washington's First Annual Progress Report" to let citizens know the status of sweeping education-reform efforts. The report, signed by then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Judith Billings, made several promises. Among them, by the year 2000:

• The high-school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent;

• Students will leave grades four, eight and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including English, mathematics and science.

Unfortunately, these promises have been broken.

Back then, the state's high-school dropout rate was 23 percent. Today it is 33 percent (and more than 60 percent for some minority groups).

The most recent Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores show that 61 percent of our 10th-graders would not be permitted to graduate from high school if the new graduation requirements (mandating proficiency in reading, writing and math) had been in effect this year instead of next.

Of the students who do graduate from our high schools and go on to community college, 43 percent must take remedial courses in reading, writing or math to prepare them for college work.

What happened?

For years we've been told the answer to our education crisis is more money, more programs for special student populations, smaller class sizes, teachers with higher college degrees, more preschool programs, etc.

We believed these promises, and we successfully implemented these reforms.

In the past 10 years:

• Total education spending per-pupil increased by 16.5 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. According to the superintendent of public instruction, we are now spending $9,439 per student per year;

• Per-pupil spending for special-education programs increased 21 percent (inflation adjusted);

• The number of children enrolled in the state's low-income preschool program rose from 5,211 in 1991 to 9,463 in 2004. Per-child spending rose from $3,313 to $8,479;

• The number of students per classroom teacher in K-12 decreased from 19.6 to 17.8;

• The portion of teachers with master's degrees or above increased from 39 percent to 56 percent.

Now, sponsors of Initiative 884 are asking for a 15.4 percent increase in the state sales tax so they can spend an additional billion dollars a year doing more of the same.

These "solutions" have been tried for decades — and they have failed. Expanding them won't make them work.

What will work is implementing proven solutions, even if we have to do so over the protests of entrenched special interests that have a stake in maintaining the status quo.

We know what works in education. We know students need highly qualified teachers and clear and rigorous academic standards. We know students and teachers thrive in small schools with a deregulated and flexible environment. And we know we need strong leaders to ensure schools are organized to meet their goals.

We expect more services from our public schools and teachers than ever before, but that doesn't always mean we should. If we want schools and teachers to deliver quality education, we can't also demand that they be mom, dad, nurse, therapist and babysitter. No amount of money will make it possible.

Schools need well-defined mission statements with a clear academic focus.

We need to attract highly qualified teachers, and we should start by adopting a flexible salary model that rewards demonstrably excellent teachers and those who enter high-demand subjects such as math and science. We should streamline our state's alternative certification program so qualified individuals (those who have proven knowledge and ability) can teach in our state's classrooms.

Successful schools require strong leadership. We should give principals and locally elected school boards the authority they need to organize and motivate their schools to achieve. This means getting rid of the excess red tape that binds and stifles innovation. It means deregulating schools to basic health, safety and civil rights standards, and putting control back in the hands of local parents, teachers and administrators.

I-884 does not address any of these crucial issues. It would delay necessary reforms and make the current failed bureaucracy $1 billion bigger.

Does it cost money to provide a good education? Of course. But how we spend that money is just as important as how much. Right now Washington spends more than $9 billion a year on its K-12 public schools — almost $9,500 per student. Yet less than half of that amount actually reaches the school building and classroom where learning takes place. A full 57 percent goes to feed the bureaucracy or other "non-basic-instruction" programs. That needs to change.

We cannot afford to mistakenly or lazily assume, yet again, that if we just throw a little (or in this case a lot) more money at our education problem, it will be solved. The cost to taxpayers and students is too high.

Marsha Richards directs the Education Reform Center for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a public policy research organization based in Olympia.