Children of Washington state take a back seat in the Legislature again. Plastic bags, driving in the rain with headlights, and gay marriage are much more important in Olympia.

Kids can’t vote, so year after year the arrogant, self-centered elected leaders of our state ignore our schools. Frank Chopp has an iron grip on every Democrat in the House. Nothing sees the light of day without his blessing. The Senate is the same. The governor gives lip service. She called a special session of the Legislature, paid them for doing nothing, and still has no budget solution.

While bloated bureaucracies mushroom and gorge on tax dollars, children in our schools receive less and less. But teachers and principals are held accountable when their schools cannot meet all the mandates the state imposes.

The state Supreme Court ruled the Legislature is not meeting its Constitutional responsibility to education; Frank Chopp says they’ll “try” to fix that by 2018. So, what happens to our children between now and then? It will take a decade to rebuild the programs, libraries, teaching staff, etc., and in the meantime, more kids are robbed of the one thing that most parents can’t provide without public schools.

This illegal and senseless tragedy has occurred over several terms, but Gov. Gregoire has presided over the latest most egregious attacks on our schools. Her legacy and that of her legislative body of friends will be the disintegration of Washington state public schools.

Thanks, Queen Chris, you’ll be remembered.

Carrie Riplinger

Seabeck