For Reina and our future, vote for I-1098

By Frieda Takamura

My young friend, Reina, has just completed her second year as a third grade teacher in South Seattle. Reina was a social worker for two years after college, but decided she wanted to work more closely with individual children, so with a hefty loan from the bank, she went back to graduate school to get her masters in teaching with an endorsement in bilingual education. With that specialty in a “hard to fill” position, she quickly got a job and come September, found herself in a class with twenty-two eager students, as racially, ethnically, socially, economically diverse as the South Seattle community from which they came.

It was a tough first year, trying to meet the many needs of her students and families, but it was also a tremendously satisfying year as she saw her students progress academically and as individuals, not to mention the growth she felt as a person and as a teacher. And she had escaped being laid off because of school district budget cuts. Most of the following summer she spent taking professional development classes and preparing for the coming year. Reina was excited to begin her second year. This year, though, her class-size had grown from twenty-two to twenty-eight students.

As the year went on, Reina’s frustration grew. Slashes in state education funding and the school district budget forced the school to reduce or eliminate classroom and student resources. Gone were the full time librarian, the art, music, and physical education specialists, the nurse, and many of the classroom aides. Reina filled the gaps because she knows students need more than the “3-R’s.” At the same time, she faced constant pressure to “raise academic standards and student achievement,” too often measured only in terms of high stakes tests, required without the provision of additional time, resources or support.

By June, Reina was physically and mentally exhausted as once again, she was faced with the possibility that she might not have a job in September because once again, the district was facing a fiscal crisis. Luckily for her students, Reina will return in September for her third year. But for how many more years of uncertainty and lack of resources can an enthusiastic, dedicated, caring teacher like Reina persevere? For how long can she continue to do what she loves and does best?

The passage of Initiative 1098 on November’s ballot will help provide the resources that the thousands of Reina’s in our schools need. By restoring and dedicating funds for education and basic health care, I-1098 will provide the stable revenue needed for the basic infrastructure of a healthy community. It will do this by requiring those who can most readily afford it (couples making more than $400,000 and individuals more than $200,000) to pay their fair share through a modest income tax.

If we truly believe that the “children are our future,” that “it takes a village to raise a child,” and that “public education is an investment for a stronger, prosperous America,” we must vote “YES” for I-1098. We must prove to the Reina’s of our state that we believe in and support them because they are indeed, ensuring that our future generations will be well educated and productive, and that they, in turn, will support us.

(Frieda Takamura is a member of the PSARA Executive Board.)

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