I am a teacher in White Center and a member of the Washington Education Association, NEA and SEA.
I oppose House Bill 1410 and Senate Bill 5444.
Our schools face huge funding cuts. Yet these bills do not include increased funding for schools.
They are a false funding promise and a distraction. We need more help from Olympia, not a bigger hindrance!
Higher education among teachers improves instruction and student learning, but this new legislation wouldn't compensate teachers for their advanced degrees. How can we pay back our student loans without compensation?
When certification is linked to high-stakes testing our most vulnerable students lose --those living in high poverty and/or learning English. Teachers, like myself, who are passionate about eliminating the achievement gap, are punished too!
By the way, we could use more help at these schools with high-risk students. We need more money for the basics. We're already about out of pencils, butcher paper, copy paper and other essential supplies. We need more computers per classroom, more books at lots of levels since we get third graders who read at a beginning of first grade level transferring in, both bilingual and not. We cannot ask many parents to bring in supplies or spend thousands at a PTSA auction. We support them more often than not with food, clothes and basic necessities. The kindergarten classes in our area have 24 to 27 students, as do most first and second grade classes. This is at Title-1 schools with half the students speaking another language at home!
Please oppose HB 1410/SB 5444.
I support the World-Class Schools bills, HB 1817 and SB 5607, which seriously address the need for improved school funding. I invite you to come to our schools and see the needs we are meeting, despite our limited resources. Feel free to contact me if you or your peers are interested.
Appeal to the Washington State Legislators
Though I am not a teacher or state legislator by any means, I still am sympathetic to your plight, as a social advocacy student at the University of Washington - Tacoma. I also consider education to be incredibly important, and something that should not be sacrificed. As a fellow American citizen, I entreat the Washington state legislators to use their good sense to overcome the tempting need to cut programs for the sole purpose of attempting to balance a clearly unbalanceable economy.
There is also a program implemented by Governor Christine Gregoire, called the Children's Learning Initiative Program that you can sniff out, possibly to aid your defense in the wake of so many bills that will no doubt prove detrimental to the justifiable implementation of education.
It may even be possible for us to help each other out in our work.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for joining and being such a willing participant in the conversation. I'm interested in the progam you mention called Children's Learning Initiative. Is this the correct URL for more information? http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/libraries/projects/early_learning.aspx
Please post more about what you are doing so we can figure out how we may be able to work together!
Thanks
Thanks to you!
Hello Robert. Yes, I recall such an intiative. What's going on in my advocacy work now is that I am writing two mock-up letters; one, a piece of grant writing, and the other, a piece to the Washington state legislators of the 20th Legislative District (rural Lewis County is included). I'm trying to scour the Internet for various reputable articles to strengthen my argument. So far, I have found a really good one focusing on rural areas in a variety of different states (Washington included), but I don't have the link on me. Darn! I will try to post it on Wednesday, possibly even tomorrow?
Take care!
Michelle Bartle
How Refreshing....
Hi Shivaboyd,
It's so very refreshing to have someone other than a teacher sympathize about education. I'm afraid some might feel that my concerns are very self-motivated. But really this legislation wouldn't impact current teachers, like myself, for at least 12 years, at least financially.
While this legislation does impact me personally, mostly, my concerns are that of an advocate for quality education and equity in teacher certification legislation. If teachers are judged based on "performance" or test scores of their students, fewer teachers will want to teach students in impoverished communities, where students often have more to overcome academically and otherwise. In terms of the equity issue, when "established" teachers are deciding if new teacher can get their certificate renewed, they have a lot of power. The fact is that still today most teachers are white, middle class (or upper middle class) women. They will hopefully see more men, teachers of color and bilingual/bicultural (multilingual/multicultural)teachers joining the profession. There is much room for discrimination and little recourse for new teachers.
Furthermore, if the teacher certification process is too unappealing, career changers will not become teachers. I believe we need more career changers in Science, Technology and Math instruction, since these are shortage areas; oh, and those areas will probably be pretty important in the 21st century.
LUCKILY, HB 1410, IN IT'S ORIGINAL FORM, IS DEAD FOR NOW. NOT THAT PIECES WON'T BE OR HAVEN'T BEEN REVIVED.
Thank you for your support and interest!
No problem whatsoever...
Hello again! :D I'm thrilled to be able to be working with educational professionals. Who better than teachers? I was wondering if you knew of any state legislators, senators, or politicians that are advocating support of the two bills you mentioned. Do you know of anyone that supports either the House or Senate bills? I'm trying to find certain politicians....but hardly anyone is opposed to education in its pure and simple form...hmmmm.
Just a thought.
And thank YOU!
Michelle Bartle
Hi Michelle
Actually there are/were quite a few well intentioned supporters of the legislation. I think it is important to acknowledge that the supporters of the legislation are framing the legislation as a solution to a problem, so their rhetoric and support are/was focused on what the legislation will/would do for education. It's very easy to focus attention on a few aspects and ignore other issues when discussing proposed legislative documents which contain over a hundred pages. That said, I believe some of the most notable support came from the Washington state PTA and various school boards, including Seattle's. A couple of aspects of the legislation seemed to be the focal point for the pro arguments: all day kindergarten, and more credits in high school. It's hard to argue against those things, and really no one was. It was more the fact that the legislation did little to address the key issue of financing, when that was the charter of the organization which proposed it. There were other issues which many teachers disagreed with as well such as less job security and less bargaining powers.
I like your question, and I think it is worth noting which state legislators supported and which legislators rejected the legislation. I know that the teaching unions of WA state will be very interested in this information the next time they vote. If/when I get the time, I'll try and track down that info and post it.
Thanks for the great question.
Cheers,
Robert
That would be very much appreciated!
If you are able to do that, then I will be very much appreciative! : )
More to post soon (I have my class in 15 minutes!) I will be back on Friday!
Till then,
Michelle Bartle
More Information
According to the following official state link:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2009&bill=1410
The house bill (HB 1410) was/is sponsored by Representatives: Sullivan, Priest, Hunter, Anderson, Carlyle, Haler, Maxwell, Pedersen, Rolfes, Quall, Springer, Dammeier, Hope, Eddy, Liias, Clibborn, Goodman, Williams, Chase, Morris, Morrell, McCoy, Kagi, Kessler, Newhouse, Simpson, Darneille, Rodne, Nelson, Probst, Miloscia, Driscoll, White, Moeller, Ormsby, Kelley, and Wood
According to this official state link:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5444&year=2009
The companion bill (SB 5444) was sponsored by: Senators Jarrett, Pflug, Tom, Ranker, Oemig, McAuliffe, Eide, Fairley, Shin, Hobbs, Rockefeller, Kline, McDermott, Haugen, Kohl-Welles.
I have yet to find an official source for the current status of this legislation and an exact accounting of who is supporting and who is opposed, but I will keep looking and update.
HB 2244, HB 2261 AND SB 6048....HB 1410 part II
Well, there was a Bellevue representative who supported HB 1410. I cannot seem to find his blog any longer though. I do recall that the Seattle School Board, who are elected representatives of their community, voted to support the bills. It was widely supported. If you check the school board's position in your area, you might find they also supported it.
Now, parts of the bill have been repackaged into HB 2244, HB 2261 and SB 6048.
The complexity of a bill like this is that good things are in it, but if no funding is there to do those good things, like all-day kindergarten, AND there are BAD things in the bill, it's a VERY BAD bill that will not even deliver the promised good things, only the bad things. This bill basically suggested that class sizes should be reduced, especially in high-poverty schools, but it gave NO FUNDS to do it. The situation my school is faced with is an increased number of students per class. This year we had 23 or 24 kids in our 1st grades, next year we will have 26. That's right they throw 24 six year old kids into a classroom, many of whom are learning English and/or live in poverty, and we need to teach them to read and write well!
It's very frustrating to have a state that won't fund manageable class-sizes or pay a professional wage when starting out. What's worse is when the state and country seem to be obsessed that the biggest problem is teachers and not societal ills. I get discouraged by this because I work very hard. Right now, I've got a huge pile of leveled readers in front of me so I can plan for the week. I do it because I care about my students...I just wish I was more rewarded and respected for it.