The next time you hear Democrats in Washington’s Legislature braying about how important it is to “fully fund” K-12 education, remember that when it came time to make a clear choice between what’s good for the kids and what’s good for their puppet masters in the teachers’ union, they sided with labor in a decision that will very likely cost this state’s schools $40 million.
The money comes in the form of a waiver Washington’s schools had heretofore been granted by the federal government while they remain out of compliance with the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. To put it simply, if there’s no waiver, there’s no money. And all it would have taken to extend the waiver is to change one word.
Washington lawmakers two years ago passed legislation that required stronger teacher reviews and could include test scores as a factor. Federal authorities, however, were unsatisfied with the loose wording of the statute and informed the state it had to replace “can” use test scores to “must.”
There was no mention of how much weight test scores had to be given, only that they must be considered on some level. But even that was too much for the unions, who argue that any hint of accountability is too much to ask where teachers are concerned.
Let’s pause to remember what it is we’re talking about here again. The only reason the state needs a waiver in the first place is because, despite a constant barrage of misinformation from the Washington Education Association about how much our schools have improved, they still don’t meet even the minimum standards spelled out 13 years ago in No Child Left Behind.
The minimum standards.
In the real world — the one where people can be held accountable for their failures — you wouldn’t think there’d be much controversy about gathering empirical evidence to measure precisely what students know and using it as a factor to determine how effective their teachers are. And until just a few weeks ago, Washington state Democrats were pretty much in agreement that at least paying lip service to the idea of holding teachers to the same standard employees in the private sector meet every day was a small price to pay in return for $40 million in federal money.
But that’s when the teachers’ union dons made their Democratic operatives in Olympia an offer they couldn’t refuse.
The payoff came last Tuesday, when 19 members of the Senate — including only one Democrat — voted to approve Senate Bill 5246, which would have made the changes necessary to keep the federal money coming, while 28 voted against the measure.
Democratic opponents of the bill say their actions don’t necessarily mean the end of the $40 million and vow to work with federal officials to negotiate yet another extension to the state’s waiver. And given the nature of the current administration in the other Washington and its own fealty to organized labor in general and teachers’ unions in particular, it’s entirely possible they’ll get it.
But even if they do, you’ll still have to ask yourself which side was willing to risk $40 million in critical funding in hopes of extending the state’s 13-year record of failure, and which side wanted to take the money while also taking a good, hard look at actually fixing the problems.
