Nearly 500 PSE members took time to answer a survey about budget cuts after Gov. Christine Gregoire released her $2 billion budget cut proposal.
Here’s what members felt were the worst options:
- Eliminating pupil transportation — 41 percent
- Increasing health insurance costs — 12 percent
- Another pay cut to school employees — 11 percent
- Reducing local levy assistance funds for suburban and rural schools — 11 percent
- Increasing class sizes — 9 percent
- Reducing school year by five days — 6 percent
- 20 percent cut to colleges and universities — 3 percent
- 10 more furlough days to state government employees — 3 percent
- Eliminating all-day kindergarten — 2 percent
- Further reduced financial aid programs — 1 percent
In addition, many of you commented on the current economic state and how it is impacting education. Here are a few examples:
- “Additional salary cuts to state employees are an easy but unfair and unethical tactic to balance the state budget. It is an unfair hardship especially upon single income families.” ~ Tom from Western Washington University
- “By eliminating transportation, students will have no way to get to school and there will be more dropouts and fewer children who would get the education that they so deserve.” ~ Pamela from Kennewick
- “Maybe they should start cutting the tax breaks that special interests get and closing loopholes. I’m getting tired of being picked on.” ~ Marsha from Western Washington University
- “The longer I work, the less I make.” ~ Karen from Marysville
- “As a school employee in the teaching profession, I have first hand experience in over crowded classrooms with insufficient staffing and I can report that the real losers are the students. We talk the talk about trying to improve education but we fail.” ~ Kim from Tahoma
- “How can we compete in a global economy if we continue to take away funding from public education. People already complain that we don’t have a work force trained for the jobs today and companies are hiring people from other countries.” ~ Tammy from Monroe
We’ll use this information as we fight to preserve education funding during special session, which begins on Nov. 28, and again in January 2012.
