Public school funding has been a problem in Washington state for a long time

Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today

I have no doubt that there are many, many folks in the Washington Education Association, as well as area teachers’ unions around Clark County and Washington state, who are very educated and intelligent. I can surmise that is the case because I’ve observed how successful they have been over the past decade-plus in achieving their seemingly singular goal. And that is, to raise teachers’ salaries.

I’m in favor of all human beings maximizing their individual earning potential. I would like everyone to be prosperous. I grew up in a household of modest income. My parents always managed to provide what we needed, but I witnessed that it wasn’t easy for them to do so. It gives me a tender heart when it comes to the financial fate of others. But, what I am not in favor of is folks who benefit financially on the backs of others, meaning their advances are created at the expense of the hardship of others.

Public school funding has been a problem in Washington state for a long time. A relatively brief recent review takes us back to the 2012 Washington State Supreme Court’s McCleary Ruling, which agreed with a previous ruling that the state was not fulfilling its obligation to fully fund education. In short, since that ruling, Washington lawmakers have poured billions of dollars from the state budget into funding public education, which now accounts for more than half of all state spending.

Ever since the McCleary money became available, teacher unions in this state have done everything they can to make sure those funds translate directly into teacher salaries. We have now seen multiple contracts negotiated by districts around Clark County that have often resulted in double-digit percentage wage increases for teachers, who have often resorted to illegal strikes in order to squeeze every last penny out of the districts.

We’ve all seen the photos from those illegal strikes. Teachers dressed in red union T-shirts carrying signs about how they are doing what they are doing because they are looking out for their students. At best, that premise confuses me. Oftentimes, it actually infuriates me.

I don’t see how rapidly escalating teacher salaries benefit the students. I understand that if teachers were being paid poverty-level wages, the best and the brightest would likely find another profession. In the interest of our children, we obviously don’t want that. But, we are well past any concerns such as that. If you want to find out what your child’s teacher is being paid, it’s all available online including here. A great number of teachers around Clark County make salaries in excess of $100,000 per year, and that is a school year, not a calendar year.

Again, I sleep very well at night knowing teachers are paid well. I graduated from a public high school in 1981. At that time, I knew of teachers that had salaries in the $25-30,000 range. Even at that time, that sounded surprisingly low to me. So, it doesn’t necessarily bother me when I see teachers today making six-figure salaries. However, I say that with a very large caveat. What are the impacts of teacher salaries in that range?

Last week, Clark County Today reporter Paul Valencia put together a roundup story of area district’s struggling to put together their budgets for the 2024-2025 school year. 

• The Evergreen School District has a $19 million budget shortfall and last month its school board passed the district’s recommendation to cut 124 full-time equivalent positions.

• The Vancouver School District has a $35 million budget shortfall and its school board passed the district’s recommendation to cut 260 FTE positions. 

• The Battle Ground School District has an $8.5 million budget shortfall. There are not expected to be any layoffs but positions will be eliminated. The district does expect affected employees will be able to find other positions within the district. 

I can’t help but think about those teachers who were picketing just last fall and what was going on in their minds as they were holding their district hostage for double-digit salary increases. Those teachers had to know that the result of those pay increases would be that many of the teachers on the picket lines with them would soon lose their jobs. And, how does that benefit the students when the Vancouver School District eliminates more than 200 positions, including teachers? Or the Evergreen School District eliminating more than 100 positions, including teachers?

And, if anyone thinks the striking teachers and their unions didn’t know what the results of their actions last fall would be, consider the fact that some observers have been predicting this dynamic for many years.

Sen. Ann Rivers, herself a former teacher, laid it out for Clark County Today in an interview in the fall of 2018, almost six years ago.

“I would say that, for a significant number of teachers, the union just signed their pink slip,” Sen. Ann Rivers said in a story Clark County Today published Sept. 26, 2018. “Because the only way that a school district can get out of this, unless there’s significant new funding from the state, is to fire teachers.”

Rivers, a former middle school math and science teacher, told Clark County Today at the time that she asked one union rep for their thoughts about the teachers who might be laid off as a result of the new raises they were pushing for.

“’Once they’re not employed, they’re not my problem anymore.’” Rivers claims she was told. “When I was a teacher I paid my dues because I thought they were going to keep me employed.”

As for the future, Rivers said:

“The reality is, Republicans are in the minority, and there’s very little that we’re going to be able to do to stop the freight train,” she said.

Sen. Rivers was prophetic in predicting the future six years ago. Democrats have remained in control of the Washington State Legislature. More and more money is being funneled into funding public schools, and that comes from the taxpayers. And, the unions have remained in control of how the state education budget is divided so those ever-increasing teacher salaries are breaking the budgets of area school districts. That is not what’s best for the students or the taxpayers.

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