A couple of weeks ago, Brian and Anna Jones, Seattle public school parents, donated $70,000 of their own money to Alki Elementary School to keep a popular teacher from being transferred. The Joneses learned that the Seattle school board wants to abruptly reassign 25 teachers, and they heroically stepped forward to help one school.

The Jones’ concern, to say nothing of their generosity, is admirable, but parents, homeowners and other taxpayers have already paid $753 million to the school board this year.  That is over $14,000 per student, the most funding ever.  To give you an idea of how much money this is, it is enough to send every child in Seattle, Everett, Federal Way and Shoreline to a private school.

And more money is coming.  This year lawmakers voted to increase public school spending by $2.9 billion, a 19% increase over the last state budget.  Members of the Seattle school board will receive $38.7 million in additional revenue, a 13% increase above current levels.  Where will all that money go?  Here are some examples.

The Seattle school board is hiring 68 more administrators to work in the district’s central office.

The school board paid $28 million to end the union-led teachers strike that disrupted families across the city.

Board members say they want to direct $1.5 million more to the free kindergarten daycare program. 

We are continually told that public schools must have more money, yet ever-higher spending never seems to be enough.

At the same time, parents are told to hold bake sales, car washes and give money, beyond the heavy taxes they pay, to support local schools.  And caring, hard-pressed parents respond to these appeals (the Jones’s generous gift alone is enough to send 11 children to high-quality private schools).

The seven-member Seattle School Board, led by Sherry Carr, seems incapable of directing adequate money to the education of children, even though their slogans are Every Child Learns and Excellence for All.  Major factors include the political threats and ham-handed tactics of the powerful SEA, the Seattle teachers union.

That may explain why three of four incumbents in next month’s school board election have decided to leave office.  Sherry Carr, Sharon Peaslee and Harum Martin-Morris have announced they will not run again.  Only Marty McLaren will seek re-election against a challenger.

Rapid leadership turnover is endemic in Seattle Public Schools.  Superintendents and board members come and go, leaving a public education system plagued by conflict, controversy, and strikes.  Mismanagement and poor allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars of public money leaves disrupted student services, worried parents and starved budgets at the neighborhood level.

That is why education choice has become so popular.  Public school families notice that the education of their neighbors’ children who attend private or independent charter schools is seldom disrupted.  Charter schools are so over-subscribed that administrators have to hold lotteries to decide who will get in. 

Parents with education choice find they don’t have to wrestle with threats, strikes and uncertainty.  Teachers at private and independent charter schools avoid politics, and focus each day on the vital task at hand – educating children.

All children deserve to go to a great school.  When their assigned public school is not working, parents should at least be given an alternative, to re-direct their share of $753 million to getting the best education possible for their children.

When will all this controversy end?  It will end when children are no longer blindly assigned to failing schools based on zip code, when parents can choose the best for their children, and when big-city politics no longer disrupts learning in public schools.