Initiative 728 washington state

We need to ensure that curriculum, instruction methods, and assessments of student performance are aligned with the new standards and student needs. The current level of state funding does not provide adequate resources to support higher academic achievement for all students. In fact, inflation-adjusted per-student state funding has declined since the legislature adopted the education reform act. The erosion of state funding for K education is directly at odds with the state's "paramount duty to make ample provision for the education of all children Conditions and needs vary across Washington's two hundred ninety-six school districts.

School boards accountable to their local communities should therefore have the flexibility to decide which of the following strategies will be most effective in increasing student performance and in helping students meet the state's new, higher academic standards:.

Smaller classes in the early grades can significantly increase the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom. Washington state now ranks forty-eighth in the nation in its student-teacher ratio.

This is unacceptable. Significant class size reductions will provide our children with more individualized instruction and the attention they need and deserve and will reduce behavioral problems in classrooms. The state's long-term goal should be to reduce class size in grades K-4 to no more than eighteen students per teacher in a class. The people recognize that class size reduction should be phased-in over several years. It should be accompanied by the necessary funds for school construction and modernization and for high-quality, well-trained teachers.

Student achievement will also be increased if we expand learning opportunities beyond our traditional-length school day and year. In addition, special programs such as before-and-after-school tutoring will help struggling students catch and keep up with their classmates. Extended learning opportunities will be increasingly important as attainment of a certificate of mastery becomes a high school graduation requirement.

Key to every student's academic success is a quality teacher in every classroom. Washington state's new standards for student achievement make teacher quality more important than ever. We are asking our teachers to teach more demanding curriculum in new ways, and we are holding our educators and schools to new, higher levels of accountability for student performance.

Resources are needed to give teachers the content knowledge and skills to teach to higher standards and to give school leaders the skills to improve instruction and manage organizational change.

The ability of school districts throughout the state to attract and retain the highest quality teaching corps by offering competitive salaries and effective working conditions is an essential element of basic education. The state legislature is responsible for establishing teacher salaries. It is imperative that the legislature fund salary levels that ensure school districts' ability to recruit and retain the highest quality teachers.

The importance of a child's intellectual development in the first five years has been established by widespread scientific research. This is especially true for children with disabilities and special needs. Providing assistance appropriate to children's developmental needs will enhance the academic achievement of these children in grades K Early assistance will also lessen the need for more expensive remedial efforts in later years. It is the intent of the people that existing state funding for education, including all sources of such funding, shall not be reduced, supplanted, or otherwise adversely impacted by appropriations or expenditures from the student achievement fund created in RCW It is the intent of the people to invest a portion of state surplus revenues in their schools.

This investment should continue until the state's contribution to funding public education achieves a reasonable goal. The goal should reflect the state's paramount duty to make ample provision for the education of all children and our citizens' desire that all students receive a quality education. The people set a goal of per-student state funding for the maintenance and operation of K education being equal to at least ninety percent of the national average per-student expenditure from all sources.

Parents of kindergartners and first-graders are noticing a difference. Wendy Stoen has three children older than her son Devin, a first-grader at Highland. He is further ahead in reading than they were at the same age. One barometer for Stoen: Devin was the first of her children to bring home a chapter book — "Goosebumps: The Night of the Mummies" — in the first grade.

These kids are listening. However, the campus in the Mukilteo School District is providing more direct contact time between teachers and students by hiring two extra teachers who go into classrooms to provide extra help. One specializes in students learning English; the other concentrates on students who need extra help to reach grade level.

Smaller class sizes in kindergarten and first grade will provide "much more diagnostic, targeted language development and literacy and reading strategies so all children can become readers in first grade," Robertson said. At last count, students get help beyond the traditional six-hour school day and a bus ride to and from home. At Horizon, for instance, 70 first- through fifth-graders get an additional hour of school each day, while 30 kindergartners attend for another 45 minutes.

The theory is simple: More time on a task will result in more learning. It was a challenge for many districts to decide how to spend their I money, said Dwayne Slate, director of the Washington State School Directors Association.

In Arlington, there was an intriguing blend with more preschool offerings for 4-year-olds and kindergarten classes that average 14 students. At the elementary school, there are daily after-school programs for students who have been identified as needing extra instruction, and after-school "drop-in" programs for students who are doing well but may occasionally need help in a specific discipline.

An after-school study lab at Post Middle School, available to anyone, saw 15 students Monday, the first day it was open. By high school, there is even a mentor program that matches adults with at-risk students, and online classes for students trying to catch up on credits.

For all the sense that I will make a difference, there is also a skeptical feeling that the spigot will be turned off, especially with bleak state revenue forecasts. Backers of I are gathering data and testimonials, fearing that state lawmakers may tinker with the voter-initiated law or cut other elements of the education budget.

Politically, voters approved I with at least a 60 percent "yes" vote in every legislative district in the state. Moreover, it would take a two-thirds majority in the House and the Senate during the next two years to amend the law. However, two years from now, the initiative kicks in more money — lots more money. In the past, when the economy was vibrant, the money would have gone into a surplus budget.

Now, state budget officials say, it is likely to come from the general fund, which pays for a variety of competing services from education to health services to natural resources. You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at or send e-mail to stevick heraldnet. Contents 1 Election results 2 Text of measure 3 Support 3. Voting on Education. Not on ballot. Local School bonds. Local school tax. School budgets. School redistricting.

Local education measures. Constitutional amendments. Initiatives to the People. Initiatives to the Legislature. Statutes referred by Legislature. Veto referendums. Political topics on the ballot. Shall school districts reduce class sizes, extend learning programs, expand teacher training, and construct facilities, funded by lottery proceeds, existing property taxes, and budget reserves?

The people of Washington State expect and deserve great public schools. A quality public education system is crucial to our state's economic prosperity and our children's future. Without raising taxes, I lets schools reduce class sizes, expand learning opportunities, increase teacher training, invest in early childhood education, and build classrooms for K and higher education.

For more information, call I is extreme and unnecessary, and will cause harm to essential state services. I takes a meat cleaver to the state budget, when careful reforms and prudent investments are what's needed to continue to improve Washington schools. This will make it difficult to fund other critical responsibilities, including competitive salaries for teachers and state workers, services to children and the elderly, health care, environmental protection, higher education, and local criminal justice.

The governor's budget office projects basic expenditure needs will exceed state revenues in the next biennium. I takes a bad budget outlook and makes it much worse, requiring cuts in services or tax increases to meet basic needs. I destroys the voter-approved spending limit, I, which brought stability to the state budget and made possible meaningful tax relief.

The will of the voters will be ignored, and we'll be back to the uncontrolled spending and tax increases of the past. There is no need for I This year the state allocated new money to schools for exactly the purposes proposed by I - class size reduction, extended learning and teacher training -but in a fiscally responsible way.