Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled that the state needed to keep their promise [and uphold the constitution] by making education the priority. While I’m pleased that our courts have acknowledged what a crappy job they’ve been doing at the capitol, they were given until 2018 to fix this without further intervention. That is unacceptable. The people need to strike while the iron is hot and push our elected officials to tackle this sooner rather than later.

There always seems to be an excuse for them to not balance the budget and ignore that our future generations are the ones suffering for it. There always seems to be an excuse for us to sit back idly and wait for them to fix it on their own but time and time again our elected officials have shown us that they won’t. Why is it alright to let education take a backseat to social issues that should be tackled by initiative by a vote of the people?

Where are all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and guardians?

Where are all the teachers, PTA participants, administrators, school boards and finance committee members?

Where are all the people who work in policy or seem so concerned about budgets/spending?

Where is the average taxpaying citizen?

Where is the common sense?

Where is the voice of the PEOPLE?

It takes 10 minutes to write a letter to your legislators about this – or any  – issue. Why aren’t more people doing that?

The funny thing about your “representative” is that they can’t properly represent you without hearing from you. When your voice is absent they are left to their own devices or left listening to special interest groups, lobbyists, unions, etc. whom you may or may not agree with and you wonder why those in Olympia and D.C. are running amok?

Education is a nonpartisan issue. Though the D’s will point fingers at the R’s and the R’s will point fingers at the D’s, neither is truly on the side of our children right now. (In fact, both parties are really stinking up what’s left of the system, but that’s another story).

I encourage everyone to get on the phone, email, handwrite and start faxing your representatives on “making education a priority” immediately. Don’t wait for somebody else to do it for you; that’s why we’re in this mess now. Everybody thinks that somebody else will speak up FOR them or that it won’t make a difference regardless. Bull-poopie. You vote? Great! But why the heck would you bother to vote if you aren’t going to tell those you vote for what you think?! If you do nothing at all, you have nobody to blame but yourself (yes, I can speak on responsibility without hypocrisy – I used to be one of those people and I’ve accepted my share of it).

This mom is asking Washington state legislators to cut the fat, postpone the social issues (or leave them to a vote of the people – as it should be), balance the budget, quit taking money from the federal government and United Nations Organizations with strings attached and give our kids a chance to succeed.

Patti Roessner

Silverdale