Community to corporate leaders: Pay fair share for education

The following is from Stand Up 4 Education:

SEATTLE (June 20, 2014) — Following on the heels of a state budget forecast that reflects insufficient funds for maintaining existing public services and fulfilling a constitutional obligation to fund public schools, a coalition of community members is going straight to the Washington Roundtable — one of the most powerful corporate lobbying organizations in the state — and urging them to be part of the real budget solution: Corporations must pay their fair share for public services and education.

Today at 10 a.m., community members will be taking their message of corporate accountability straight to the Washington Roundtable, which includes executives from Boeing, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Chase, and Wells Fargo. Students, parents, educators, and other supporters in the community will meet at 7th and Pike in downtown Seattle and march to the Roundtable office at 520 Pike St.

Washington state has the most regressive revenue system in the country and gives away about $2.3 billion a year in corporate tax breaks — with little to no accountability — while education is deprived of adequate funding.

This has led to soaring student debt, higher education costs, dangerously underfunded schools, and lack of early learning opportunities for Washington families. Now Gov. Jay Inslee’s office is asking agency leaders to prepare for potential 15-percent budget cuts in public services in response to the latest budget forecast.

The real budget solution is to fix the state’s regressive revenue system and ensure corporations pay their fair share, not to cut struggling services even more.

That’s why throughout June, Stand Up 4 Education members have visited the corporate offices of top Washington executives and asked for their support in fixing our state revenue system by holding corporations accountable to pay their fair share.