Jan. 6, 2009

Education should be top budget priority, says Anderson
Legislator urges majority leaders to honor state's constitution

With the beginning of the 2009 legislative session and the looming $6 billion state budget deficit, Rep. Glenn Anderson today strongly encouraged his colleagues in the House and Senate to craft a budget that funds education first.

The Fall City Republican's Minority Statement to the Basic Education Finance Task Force's final report outlines the state's constitutional mandate to fund education before other programs.

Authorized by legislation passed in 2007, the task force was directed to create an up-to-date definition of "basic education" and to craft an education finance formula that reflects the realities of today's classrooms by January 2009. As part of the group's final considerations, the governor and task force leaders have asked lawmakers to send a tax hike proposal to the voters to pay for the recommendations, which are estimated to cost an additional $2 billion.

Anderson supports the task force's proposals to improve K-12 education. However, he believes prioritizing state spending would ensure ample funding for the group's recommendations, even in lean economic times, without asking taxpayers for more money.

"If the governor is truly using a 'Priorities of Government' process that adheres to our state's constitution, K-12 education would be fully funded in the final budget the Legislature passes this year," said Anderson. "Our constitution directs elected leaders to regard basic education as superior to all other issues. If other state programs less vital to our quality of life need funding, those price tags should be presented to the public for consideration of the new taxes necessary to pay for them. The quality of our children's education should not be used as bait for new and higher taxes to bail out recent bad budget decisions that led to the current runaway deficit."

Anderson's Minority Statement recommends:

• Keeping the recommendations of the task force in tact by not allowing legislators to break up the reforms into various bills that may cause confusion and create a system no more functional than today's;

• OSPI executive authority to implement the recommendations must be clear, have unified support and accountability; and

• Adequate funding must be aligned with the reforms and the outline for phasing in the new structure must be reliably made available by the Legislature to ensure timelines are met and to create an accountability mechanism.

Anderson added that it is time to eliminate using our children's education as a political football. The Legislature, he said, can have a lively debate on whether to fund existing and proposed non-essential programs and come to an agreement on what receives funding and what items in the budget must go.

"Shortchanging the education of our children is not an option according to the state constitution. Regardless of how challenging the stresses are on our state budget, we should not tell our kids they aren't important enough for us to make tough leadership decisions on their behalf," said Anderson.

He added that at some point the Legislature must commit to fulfilling its obligation to fund education first and let other programs divvy up what is left over.

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Editor note: Attached are copies of Rep. Anderson's Minority Statement, the governor's letter to the task force and task force Chairman Dan Grimm's letter to the group referenced above.  

For more information, contact:  Bobbi Cussins, Public Information Officer - (360) 786-7252