Schools Healthy and Growing in Washington

OLYMPIA, Wash. — While many states are slashing education spending, Washington schools are happily in the black--spending, hiring and expanding.

Elementary and secondary schools reaped a $1.3-billion increase to $7.2 billion in state aid for the coming biennium, a 22% jump, second only to New Jersey in percentage.

Much of the increase--courtesy of Washington’s strong aerospace and computer software industries and big gains in population--is going to cover enrollment increases.

The state is hiring 3,000 new teachers, and large new appropriations were approved to lower class sizes in elementary grades, foster early intervention, drug and dropout programs, and expand the state’s “Schools for the 21st Century” reform program recently praised by President Bush.

Lawmakers also made Washington the first state to provide free preschool for every eligible 4-year-old not already in federal Head Start.

Tacoma will use some of its $3.4-million state windfall to hire teachers, music and bilingual specialists, early-intervention counselors for elementary grades, and high school security guards. The 30,000-student district also is buying new texts, computers and library books, and will beef up dropout programs, vocational education, and its magnet schools system designed to help desegregate the system.

“This was a dramatic improvement,” Tacoma Supt. John Kvamme said. “We got dollars to deal with the deficit we were up against and do these other things.”

“For an awful long time, we’ve paid lip service to K-12 and higher education, but put our money elsewhere,” Senate Budget Chairman Dan McDonald said. “Now we’ve stepped up to it with real money. We did a good job in tough times.”