Transforming Washington's Budget Ideas

Why does the State of Washington have 295 school districts! Why not use a model employed by other states - base school district boundaries on county boundaries for most counties and on student population for counties such as King County. It probably would not be prudent to combine Seattle School District with other districts, given its existing student population. As an example - Thurston County has 8 school districts ...more »

The President of Washington State University lives in Western Washington, even though WSU and the State pays for his house in Pullman. Washington is currently paying for his two homes. Force him to live in Pullman!

We really need to get 'smart' and implement year round accelerated public schools. What a tremendous waste of staff and facility resources having hundreds of closed buildings and thousands of employees idled for several months each summer all over the state. This type of year round accelerated school program would reduce our overall education costs while improving our children's education levels. States that have done ...more »

Force failing running start students to return to high school. Currently running start students can essentially register for classes and "drop out" as long as they register each quarter while the state picks up the tab for their tuition plus part of the support at the high school, these students are expensive and they're tying up limited seats at the community college.

stop raising taxes and saying it is for education. If our states children used all that money in extra taxes we would have the smartest children in the nation.

I own a store in the Tri-Cities area and I know for a fact that I'm one of the only ones in this whole part of the state that charges tax on phone cards as we're supposed to (my customers complain that I'm the only one that charges, plus I've inquired w/ other owners). Part of the problem is I think that their are some that really don't even know (education), but many others use it as a marketing advantage as it makes ...more »

The fact that we're allocating $900,000 to make principals better while cutting teachers and parapros who are closest to the kids is unreal. This program is the classic example of fat in the budget, and maintaining it while Rome burns is absolutely unacceptable.

The budget has $530,000 to provide grants for school employees looking to become principals and superintendents. These are people who already have a job--this money should be going into workforce development, not giving time off for people who are already drawing a paycheck.

In our effort to balance the state budget, Higher Education has landed on the chopping block. I believe this is a gross mistake. Washington needs to continue to attract and retain the best and the brightest if we expect to sustain our economy for the future. Lets not become so short sighted in a time of economic crises as to threaten our future.

Put Competition in School System. Parents should have the Right to say which Schools get to have their Kids Tax Funding. Result would be Better Schools and Less Unions holding the States Education Hostage with Strikes. Current Attitude of Schools is "Yeah well, what are ya gonna do about it? Nothin cuz you have no choice".

The McCleary lawsuit established that we're not funding education the way we should. The state is clearly violating the paramount duty clause of the constitution; appealing the decision is a fool's errand that will cost $950,000. Drop the appeal and work on actually making progress.

Part of unemployment insurance should be to qualify for a student loan to improve skills to reduce the chances of becoming unemployed again in the future.