In the State of Washington, as well as in other American states, the discussion of the question of school funding plays an important role. Numerous attempts have been made to understand if it is possible to achieve equity with minimal losses and sacrifices. Kemerer and Sansom (2013) compared the peculiar features of school spending and academic achievements to clarify the role of money parents, communities, and schools are ready to invest in students. Washington is the state where public schools funding concerns make people strike and protect their rights in courts.
For example, in 2009, House Bill 2261 was introduced as a new education reform that challenged the achievements of the 1977 Basic Education Act and cut more than one billion dollars from public school funding. In 2015, the State of Washington was fined $100,000 daily due to its shortcomings in education and the case of McCleary (Schimel, 2015). The fights to establish an appropriate Washington school funding system continue today. The state is not able to provide enough money for all students in their intentions to get an education, and citizens find it normal to address local levies, which are not as stable and credible as school funding (O’Sullivan & Morton, 2017). Taking into consideration the presence of such challenges and concerns based on unstable funding, it is necessary to understand if the citizens of Washington have a chance to obtain better funding conditions.
At this moment, Washington schools are under the jurisdiction of one particular agency, known as the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) led by Dorn. There are two main sources of funding for schools: state funds supported by the Legislature and money that are usually raised from local levies (Schimel, 2015). Washington’s constitution supports both these ways of funding as a possibility for people to pay for their basic education. Many factors have to be taken into consideration to decide which districts have a right to get their funding, including the level of teachers’ background knowledge and experience, the number of employees, and student-teacher ratios. To meet the needs of all schools, the state has to cut back some areas and provide levies with an opportunity to support the population. However, this kind of support promotes the disparities between poor and rich people. Therefore, it is possible to say that all schools in the State of Washington are funded, but the existing funding system is not equal for all students. Instead of focusing on the needs of schools, it is suggested to develop a funding system that is based on the needs of students and introduce a kind of per-pupil funding model (Morton, 2017). Though such a requirement may be a real challenge for the local government, this approach may promote the required portion of equality. Students should not depend on their families’ incomes to get a basic education. The government has to take care of its children and provide them with an opportunity to study and never suffer from the cases such as the case of the McCleary family or the Serrano cases (Kemerer & Sansom, 2013). Washington has a chance to improve its funding system and prove that equal opportunities may be available to all students.
In general, the public school funding system in Washington State is not perfect. Its equitability is also questioned. However, the evaluation of the recent case studies and legal steps shows the state’s intentions to change the system and make sure that equal opportunities are possible for students from different families.
References
Kemerer, S., & Sansom, P. (2013). California school law (3rd ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Books.
Morton, N. (2017). In the fight over Washington’s school funding, some want a big change in who gets how much – but is it too late?The Seattle Times. Web.
O’Sullivan, J., & Morton, N. (2017). New Washington state budget would provide $7.3B more to public schools over four years.The Seattle Times. Web.
Schimel, K. (2015). A step-by-step guide to Washington’s school funding problems.Crosscut. Web.