Everything Bremerton: Spend schools money wisely

Published 11:43 am Friday, August 26, 2011

Education is an investment. An investment that, as a citizen and a parent, I view includes a certain portion of my property taxes, personal out of pocket classroom supply purchases and periodic school donations.

That said, I enter into the coming school year with major reservations about public education as a whole in the state of Washington. There have been very deliberate, systematic increases and incremental shifts in the percentage of the financial burden for public education away from what should be the paramount duty of the state as decided, legislated and managed by our elected leadership.

Ever-increasing the burden is instead being placed squarely onto the backs of local property owners, citizens and parents. This is a slippery slope where the bottom is clearly in sight to everyone except the status quo.

During three years of service on the District Finance Committee I saw many decades of failed decision making at the state level. It revealed how the current system of school levy funding has become a corrupted, convoluted mess of necessary funding patches to fill the gaps and holes for basic education items that the state legislature will not acknowledge, recognize and  correct.

What started out as a local tax system to fund community desired items and programs, above and beyond basic education in local districts, has evolved into using levies for critical funding required for day-to-day district survival. Unfortunately, our elected leadership and local districts have become so immersed and addicted to using levy funding, it has become impossible for them to stop.

We are going to have to help them stop by weaning them off of levies.

If we do not, then we are facing years of levy lid increases, additional levies, even more costly supply lists for back to school and a significant increase in out of pocket costs throughout the school year all while the money that should be used from the state for education is instead spent on politician career advancing special interest items.

More local money with less local control. The legislature would continue to make the rules but not have the burden of funding those rules.

Even the National PTA has recognized that there should be limits on allowing the burden to shift too far away from the responsibilities of federal and state governments in their great document, “Is your PTA an ATM for your school?”

Be mindful of what you spend and donate to your school this year. Invest in your child and others, while making sure you’re not being used as a captive funding source to make up for the increasing decision making failures on education spending at the state level or unproven innovative underfunded programs at the district level.

They already have enough of your money for education. They are simply not spending it correctly. Blindly supplying more money just feeds their ever growing addiction.

Colleen Smidt writes about everything Bremerton.