Start walking, start talking | IN OUR OPINION

Published 9:22 am Monday, April 27, 2015

Bainbridge teachers are so angry about the state’s chronic lack of funding for basic education that they’re talking about walking off the job next week.

They’re also talking about marching on Olympia, and descending on the state capital to show lawmakers that they are fed up with the state’s repeated failure to comply with the Washington Constitution that places a paramount duty on the state to educate our children.

Everyone agrees that means more money for education. Local teachers pointed out this week that the state has admitted in court filings that it has underfunded basic education and should be spending nearly $3,000 more per child this year.

For Bainbridge, that means an additional $9 million annually for island public schools.

Dave Layton, president of the union that represents Bainbridge school teachers, said the impact of full funding would be mind-boggling.

“Can you imagine what we could do with class sizes, program development and professional development if we had full funding?” Layton told the Review this week. “It would be such a different experience for kids and teachers.”

Can you imagine, indeed.

But can you also imagine if the vast numbers of people who support improved public education, from across Bainbridge and Washington state, raised our voices with such vigor as our teachers and demanded that the Legislature take true and sustaining action to fully fund basic education? Would the message be finally heard?

During next week’s walkout, if it comes (and we hope it does), there may be disruptions and inconveniences for students, parents and others in the community.

We hope there are. People need to be inconvenienced, people need to be disrupted — people need to be reminded, in the starkest of ways, what’s at stake with public education now, right now, in Washington state.