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OPINION

Today’s math lesson: Rising costs > state revenue growth = deficit

By MRS. EMERSON


(Feb. 13, 2015) — Do you know what it’s like to pay money out of your own pocket so you can perform your job functions? I do. My name is Mrs. Emerson, and I am a Board Certified Special Education teacher from Woodinville, Wash.

We have a problem. In Washington state, not enough revenue is being raised to fulfill the state’s essential responsibilities to all of us.

As a teacher, I encounter this every day in the classroom. I teach 38 students, when I only have capacity for 24. The district cannot provide me with the proper education materials to meet my students’ needs. And I pay $1,000 a year of my own money to provide my students with basic learning tools such as paper, pencils, and binders.

Some of our state legislators argue that we can fund our obligations with the money we already have. They’ve forgotten their basic elementary math skills. So I made this video to remind them how simple the math is.

 

There’s a ready solution — fair, accountable, shared revenue that’s sufficient and stable enough to fulfill Washington’s responsibilities. Learn more here at the Washington United for Fair Revenue website.

And please join me in signing the petition urging Gov. Jay Inslee and state legislators to “act now to correct Washington’s revenue system, the least fair in the nation, and to adopt fair, accountable and shared revenue resources so that everyone may share in Washington’s growing prosperity.”

emerson-mrsBest,
Mrs. Emerson


MRS. EMERSON is a Board Certified Special Education Teacher in Woodinville, Wash.

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