Legislators talk education, taxes and more at the ESD’s “Evening with Our Legislators”
Several state legislators spoke to Edmonds School District students, parents, staff and community members on Dec. 11, addressing issues in education, such as the McCleary decision and Core 24, and other state issues such as the tax structure and the environment.
In attendance at the forum were several of the legislators that represent areas served by the Edmonds School District. All Democrats, State Senator Marko Liias (District 21), State Representative-Elect Strom Peterson (District 21), State Representative Ruth Kagi (District 32), State Representative Derek Stanford (District 1) and Luis Moscoso (District 1) spent nearly 90 minutes discussing their views and answering questions from the community.
Several parents and teachers expressed frustration regarding additional educational requirements, such as Core 24, Smarter Balance Assessment, performance reviews for teachers and the No Child Left Behind laws. The legislators spoke in favor of reducing some requirements to make it easier for students and teachers to focus on education.
But the major issue discussed at the forum was the lack of funding for education. After the Washington Supreme Court decided to hold the legislature in contempt for failure to comply quickly enough with the court’s order to amply fund public education under the McCleary decision, the state legislator must come up with a way to fund public education. While several of the legislators said there could be some spending cuts, all agreed that new revenue would be necessary to fill the nearly $2 billion hole. Legislators argued it’s time for a state income tax to fill the gap in the budget.
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Nick Fiorillo is the Editor-in-Chief of the Hawkeye and thehawkeye.org. This is Nick's second year of serving as editor. Last year, he led the Hawkeye in one of the organization's most dramatic transformations in decades, replacing the broadsheet newspaper with a feature based newsmagazine and an emphasis on online content.
Prior to serving as editor-in-chief, Nick was the local news editor during his sophomore year and was a staff reporter during his freshman year.
Nick was named as the 2014 Free Spirit Scholar from Washington state, and traveled to Washington, D.C. as the Washington state delegate to the 2014 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference. He has received several state and national awards for journalism, including several JEA National Write-off Competition Awards. He was recently awarded the rating of "Superior" for Editorial Writing at the Spring 2014 JEA/NSPA High School Journalism Conference in San Diego, Calif.
His interests include journalism, politics, public policy, law and education. He plans on attending a four-year university and majoring in political science and social policy.
You can view his pressfolio here.
Twitter: @nick_fiorillo
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