from
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/any-way-you-slice-it-seattle-public-schools-woes-are-self-inflicted/

(My family story is a terrible indictment on our current public schools.
I raised 4 children and all went to public schools and all graduated
from Washington public universities. Now 3 of those have had children,
5 in total. Two have attended public elementary schools, but by
next fall, all will be attending private schools.)

Any way you slice it, Seattle Public Schools’ woes are self-inflicted
April 14, 2023 at 2:14 pm

300 dpi Donna Grethen illustration of relates to the restructuring of
the No Child Left Behind bill (Op Art/TNS)
By The Seattle Times editorial board

Seattle Schools Superintendent Brent Jones has been frank about one of
the main challenges facing the state’s largest school district: Parents
who have the means are pulling their kids out.

Declining enrollment is due partly to a nationwide demographic shift.
There are simply fewer school-age children. But Seattle has
comparatively high rates of private school attendance, a fact not lost
on Jones, who says the city’s public schools need to get better at
telling their story.

Currently, that tale begins with a looming $131 million budget hole and
decisions being made in its shadows that could lock the district into a
downward spiral for years.

Consider accelerated learning. Rightly concerned about racial
segregation between kids in so-called “highly capable” classrooms and
everyone else, Seattle has been working to abolish these divisions. It
found a creative solution — at least, at one site — by bringing the
highly touted Technology Access Foundation to Washington Middle School,
where most of the students are low-income children of color.

TAF worked with all of them. There were digital literacy classes, web-
and game-development and STEM-focused field trips. Math scores rose by
double-digits for 7th and 8th graders. Results in English were, in
general, similarly impressive — even during the pandemic’s unprecedented
toll on learning.

Yet now, just three years into their partnership, Seattle is showing TAF
the door. “We have to operate within our means,” Associate
Superintendent Concie Pedroza said at a February budget meeting.

Founded by former Microsoft executive Trish Dziko, TAF had been
contributing almost $800,000 annually to pay for its own team of 10 at
Washington Middle School. Those educators worked alongside Seattle
teachers, seven of whom were added to the middle school to enable
smaller class sizes. But next year, the extra Seattle teachers — as well
as half of the school’s award-winning music program — will be pulled to
cut costs.

The issue here is not cuts per se; schools across the district are
weathering fiscal problems. Rather, it’s vision.

True, Seattle faces a massive deficit. Also true: A good chunk of that
gap comes from labor contracts eating up “significantly more” money than
the district is taking in, as Jones acknowledged during the same
February budget meeting.

But whose fault is that? Jones and his team signed off on a three-year,
$228 million contract with the teachers union last fall. It offered more
generous raises than the previous agreement, even though everyone knew
that declining enrollments would mean less money for schools. Six months
later, Seattle began talking about cuts to TAF and music, two of the
district’s standout attractions.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to recognize the equation at work: Fewer
students means less state money, which leads to cutting the very
programs that draw families. Which leads to fewer students, and so on.

Meanwhile, Seattle is barreling ahead with renovation plans for Alki
Elementary School. No question, the rickety old building needs an
upgrade. It currently holds fewer than 300 kids. The district wants to
enlarge its capacity to 500, even though Seattle is seeing its worst
enrollment declines in elementary grades.

If there’s a logic to these decisions, and their timing, it’s difficult
to decipher. Seattle Public Schools declined to make officials available
to answer questions for this editorial.

At a public meeting, Jones said the district needs to “go on the
offense” and make its case to parents that they should choose Seattle
schools.

That’s what many people want, a reason to stay with public education.
But when bureaucrats make spending decisions, seemingly without an ear
for the long-term reverberations, they push families in the opposite
direction.

The Seattle Times editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate
Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Alex Fryer, Claudia Rowe, Carlton Winfrey and
William K. Blethen (emeritus).