Anne C. Cowles: We need to fund education choice and restructure public education funding

Everyone believes a good education and instilling a love of learning can allow any child to achieve the “American dream.” It’s the one thing you can’t take away, regardless of their family situation. In one of Spokane’s poorest neighborhoods, 98% of the kindergartners and children transferring from traditional public schools were well below grade level when they entered one of our new, local public charter schools, Spokane International Academy. By the end of their first year, 91% of the students were reading above grade level.

This success is something we should emulate. However, many in our state are seeking its destruction.

Washington’s public schools are controlled by the Washington Education Association (WEA) – the state teachers’ union. That organization is not putting our children first. Because of WEA’s actions and strong lobby, our state discriminates against public charter school students and their families who are all paying for levies.

No public charter school receives local levy funding, nor any facilities funding. Last year, three state charter schools closed due to this funding inequity. For Spokane’s local public charter schools that serve approximately 1,000 students, the levy inequity amounts to approximately $1.2 million per year that SPS receives for the students it doesn’t teach. This is not right.

The legislature and WEA should embrace choice, entrepreneurship and experimentation in education. School choices, such as charters or magnet schools, are small laboratories that are uncovering new solutions to school failures, finding new ways to meet children’s seven different learning styles. Having choices empowers parents to engage more in their children’s education.

Our state and local taxpayers are very generous in what we allocate to our public schools. The total amount of state spending on K-12 has doubled since the McCleary decision. The Spokane Public Schools (SPS) total budget has increased 49% over that same time period to $459 million – while serving fewer students. SPS spends $15,400 per student, per year. Yet even with this increase in revenue, our children lose their librarians, young favorite teachers and part of a school day for learning.

Just a few short years ago, local school district leaders agreed to larger salary increases for teachers than most Spokane families have ever received and ones taxpayers and school district budgets couldn’t afford. As a result, they were forced to cut school hours on Fridays as well as young teachers and librarians to compensate.

It is a myth that our teachers are underpaid. The average Spokane Public Schools teacher pay including benefits is $116,300, for a 180-day school year, according to the latest publicly available data. The median household income in Spokane is $59,783 per year. Teacher contracts also make it a policy for district leaders to force the removal of younger, newly-hired teachers when layoffs may arise – even if those teachers are the best.

In addition, we are spending an additional $500 million (SPS bond) in capital revenues from taxpayers to build three $45 million to $80 million middle schools. Comparatively, one local charter school, Spokane International Academy (SIA), is trying to buy an old, life insurance headquarters to renovate for its K-8 school building for a total cost to purchase and renovate of approximately $7 million. Our legislature unfairly refuses to fund any money for their facilities even though they are public schools. Consequently, three charters closed last year.

Our state is behind in education. In 2018-19, 44% of Spokane Public School students failed to meet the state English standard and 54.8% failed to meet the math standard. Is this acceptable?

This last billion-dollar bump in educational funding changed nothing in the classroom, except that there are now fewer young, innovative teachers, no librarians with locked libraries and a shorter school week. Is that how we create a globally competitive student?

How will we be an innovation economy with headquartered tech companies, if we don’t innovate in education through choices like public charters, magnet schools, and educational savings accounts to empower families to decide what’s best for their child? We need laboratories, choice and innovation in education, not more money.

Anne C. Cowles is a former trustee at Gonzaga University and Saint George’s School, a former board member and co-campaign chair for Mobius Spokane, and a member of Momentum’s Spokane’s Report Card Review Committee.