Education task force: Spend more on schools, require more instruction days

After more than four years of study and discussion (in two different iterations), the Basic Education Finance task force has finalized its recommendations for school funding and reform.

Their call: Schools need more money. Much more. And more days of instruction. And teachers who are paid what they’re worth on the market, then given raises based on performance. And smaller classes. And money for libraries and technology.

The conflict: The state, as you’ll get used to hearing, is facing a budget shortfall of an estimated $5 billion.

Here’s the AP’s summary, courtesy of The Seattle Times.

And over here you’ll find all the task force hearings on TVW.

You can find all the task force’s documents – except a list of final recommendations, which won’t be up for a week or so – here. Roxanne Lieb, director of the task force’s public policy staff, told me today that they’ll post the recommendations next week, then spend a few more weeks working it into a readable final report. No bills have been filed yet.

Here’s the last hearing, from which the group released a report. There’s a bit between 36 minutes and 39 minutes regarding how many instruction days to require that’s illustrates how detailed these discussions have been.:

Tags: Budget, Money, Schools, Task Force