WHEN Seattle parent Brian Jones plunked down $70,000 to keep a West Seattle teacher from being reassigned to another school, he said he wanted to shine a light on the poor job lawmakers and officials are doing at funding public schools. That is not the whole story. While the Supreme Court has held the state in contempt with a $100,000-a-day fine, the state has made significant progress toward fully funding basic education. This year, lawmakers pumped an additional $1.3 billion into K-12 education. Those extra funds were intended to pay additional costs, such as all-day kindergarten, limiting class sizes from kindergarten to third grade, and teacher raises, as well as maintenance and supplies.
