Students across the State joined school administrators for 'Day on the Hill' in Olympia on Monday, February 27th.
Port Angeles School District's Student Board Representative Yau Fu, a junior at Port Angeles High School, spoke with local legislators and Chris Reykdahl, Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction. Below, hear from Yau on her experience in Olympia and read her thoughts about this current legislative session:
I was recently given the opportunity to travel to Olympia with our school board to advocate for changes in our state's funding model. Districts from all over Washington came to Olympia to speak with their legislatures and discuss "Hot Topics!"
This year, we focused on the topics of fully funding Special Education services and fixing pupil transportation. In the state constitution, the public education system is named as Washington's paramount duty. So then why does Washington cap the special education population at 13.5%? Any student outside of that 13.5% is unfunded by the state. In our district, (as of February) we have a 17.8% special education population, which is 617 students. 13.5% of students is 466, so that means 151 special education students are not funded by the state, but by the local Enrichment Levy. Having to use the EP&O Levy on basic education ends up affecting every single student in the school district, from kindergarteners to seniors about to graduate. Whether that is maintaining extracurricular activities such as sports, music, and clubs, or a student struggling with mental health and not being given the proper mental health resources to know what to do, every single student will feel the effects of special education not being fully funded.
School board representatives from all over Washington came together to advocate for changes in the education system. We spoke with our district legislatures, so they could hear directly from students, about how we are impacted. We also were given the opportunity to speak with the state's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal. He was able to answer any questions we had about speaking to our legislatures, and the next steps in advocating for changes in the education system. I ended my day off, by meeting with Governor Inslee. All the student board representatives present got together and we advocated for fully funding Special Education and change in how transportation is funded.
I hope that if Legislatures took one thing away from Day on the Hill, it is that students are the ones being directly impacted by their policy changes. We are the ones that are in the schools, learning and growing almost every day for years, and every decision they make about education affects students' lives. The reason we were in Olympia was to get our voices heard, so I hope they chose to hear us out, take in what we had to say, and advocate for change.
I am very grateful that I get to work together with the board, and represent the students in Port Angeles School District. I got to meet other student representatives from all over the state with diverse backgrounds, but we all connected through our interest in advocating for change in our State's education system. Speaking to the people in charge of making decisions that impact the lives of people who can't even vote yet really opened my eyes, and I will never forget the opportunities that the board has given me! I have learned lessons I can implement in real life, and I am very thankful that the Washington State School Directors' Association put its time into making Day on the Hill happen!
