Parents across Washington state are upset and angry that public schools remain closed, after the governor cancelled half of the last school year and most of this one.

Younger children are learning to hate school from having to sit in front of a screen for hours on end and being isolated from their classmates. Many otherwise good students are now receiving D’s and F’s.

High school seniors are worried about graduating on time, and fear losing the chance to get a good start on life.

Some parents saw hope when Governor Inslee said on December 8th:

"We have increasing reason to be optimistic we can open to on-site instruction, perhaps a hybrid, in January..." (At 24:11).

Count me skeptical.  The governor has changed his mind before.  As things stand now, schools are unlikely to open before the fall of 2021.

Only a week ago, Larry Delaney, president of the WEA union, bragged in a December 3^rd Facebook post that he had convinced the governor to keep public schools closed.  (Meanwhile, many private schools have opened using safety guidelines.)

The governor has disputed Delaney’s account, but the political power of the WEA union is well known.

Earlier, Delaney said it doesn’t matter that closed schools are harming children because they are all falling behind together.

That’s not true. A study by McKinsey shows harm from school closings is falling hardest on low-income black and Hispanic children. These children face a lifetime of lower earnings because of COVID-related school closures, the report shows.

So far the governor has kept the legislature out of session, but lawmakers are due to finally meet on January 11th.

The two most powerful lawmakers on education policy are Senator Lisa Wellman, the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, and Representative Sharon Tomiko-Santos, Chair of the House Education Committee.  Both were elected with strong WEA union support and are consistently loyal to union interests.

These committee Chairs just concluded work sessions where they took no public testimony, but which reveal their priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

Senator Wellman sought input, not on how to open schools, but on mandatory race and diversity training, and on expanding child care.

Rep. Santos’ committee heard not from parents or child advocates, but from administrators who fear losing public money.

Brian Giannini of the Mercer Island School Board said:

“…Mercer Island is down 200 students, that is $2.5 million. Those are [employee] staff members that won’t be with us next year unless something is done to protect those funds at the highest level of the state….”  (At 1:34:56). 

That is likely to be the number one topic in Olympia, directing more money to administrator budgets even though 32,000 families have taken their children out of the state’s public system.

Administrators will no doubt claim the extra money is for “educating children,” but it will really be about protecting the monopoly school model, even as parents seek other choices.

School Board Director Giannini says, “Our children are resilient, so long as we provide them those resources and support, they are going to come through this,” even as he denies families the direct resources they need to be flexible and resilient.

The WEA union, the School Board Directors Association, the Association of School Administrators and the Association of School Principals run the biggest lobby operations in the state capital. 

Meanwhile, to many lawmakers parents and children remain faceless, voiceless and unknown.

There is hope, however.  There will likely be bills introduced to re-open the schools, and bold forward-looking proposals to give parents direct assistance and broader learning choices.  Parents are clearly upset and frustrated, so even the Chairs of these powerful committees may have to listen.

After all, the paramount constitutional duty of Washington state is to its children, and not to the rigid and inflexible system of public schools that has so spectacularly failed to meet the challenge of COVID lock-downs.