Shoreline Education Association President: "This Budget Hurts."

The following comments are from Eric Scaia, who is on leave as a math teacher from Shorewood High School to serve as  president of the Shoreline Education Association, the union that represents Shoreline School District teachers.

This budget hurts. It hurts in obvious ways: oversized classes and reduced pay.

Our students are subjected to the third-largest classes in the country. That’s before this budget’s impact is felt. Washington state limits the number of children under the supervision of an individual child care provider to 15 (source), but our K-3 classes are funded to be larger than 24! At the same time that class sizes grow the supports children need in order to come to school ready to learn are being eliminated elsewhere in the budget.

 In terms of pay cuts, 1.9% is only the beginning of the story. The voter approved Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) mandated by I-732 has been suspended for another two years. Lost increases due to suspension are estimated to be 0.3% next year and 2.5% the year after. Combined with the last two years of suspended (2008-9 and 2009-10) COLAs I-732 as approved by voters would have accounted for a 5.2% increase which has not been funded by the State. Combined with the elimination of two Learning Improvement Days by the State since 2007, teachers will have taken a 7.8% pay cut due to legislative action.

Analysis of this budget has taken significant cuts for granted. The loss of I-728 funding, approved by the voters to reduce class size, has a tremendous impact on School District budgets. Its elimination amounts to an $831 million cut to K-12 education. It is impossible for that cut not to be felt by our students, either in higher class sizes, eliminated programs, or diminished availability of support from classified employees.

 Not allowing school districts to implement furlough days furthers the State’s history of masking the cuts that have been made to education in recent years. Especially frustrating are comments by some legislators that these cuts may not result in pay cuts for teachers. The Legislature has cut teacher salary, they should take responsibility for the cut, explain why it was made, and make a proportionate cut to the school year. It is not appropriate for them to make the cut then wash their hands of it as school districts and local associations struggle to deal with it locally.