Download PDF version of WEA’s 2009 top legislative priorities.

Education is the solution
WEA’s 2009-10 focused agenda for Olympia

Washington students deserve a top-notch education, whether they’re in preschool, K-12 or college. A quality education is the key to success, and the health of our state’s economic future depends on it.

As certificated educators, education support professionals, higher education faculty, retired educators and future teachers, the Washington Education Association’s 81,000 members know firsthand what our students and schools need to succeed.

• Improve school funding and educator compensation
  
  • Invest in the Full Funding Coalition’s plan for public schools. Protect voter-mandated funding for cost-of-living salary adjustments and smaller class sizes.
    
    • Quality public education is the key to Washington’s economic future — don’t cut the solution.
    • Public schools are the state’s paramount duty even in tough economic times.
    • Voters overwhelmingly approved Initiatives I-732 and I-728.
    • Washington’s class sizes are 46th in the nation.
    • Washington’s average teacher pay is below the national average and dead last among West Coast states. Salaries for education support professionals and college faculty also are a WEA priority.


• WASL reform
  • Improve the state student assessment system and allow students to prove they’ve met high academic standards in other ways.
  • WEA members support high academic standards.
  • We oppose using any single test to make high-stakes decisions about students, including high school graduation.
  • WEA members have always supported an assessment system that measures student achievement in multiple ways, which is both fairer and more accurate.


• Equal bargaining rights for community and technical college faculty.
  • Grant faculty the ability to negotiate fair salaries.
    • Community and technical college faculty are the only educators in the state with legally restricted collective bargaining rights. K-12 certificated educators, education support professionals and faculty at the regional universities all have the legal right to negotiate salaries.
    • Washington’s community and technical college faculty salaries are substantially lower than those in any comparison group and are $22,000 less on average than the average for Western states.
    • Community and technical college faculty have a long tradition of local collective bargaining; this proposal simply expands that tradition to include salaries.

These are the Washington Education Association’s top priorities for the 2009 legislative session, as approved by the WEA Board of Directors. Our complete legislative agenda covers school funding, compensation (pay, benefits, retirement), academic standards and professional issues such as academic, political and union rights. Visit www.WashingtonEA.org for more information.