Frockt: Democrats have a better plan for school reform

By Evan Smith

Democratic State Sen. David Frockt says that Democrats have a better plan to reform public schools than the one that the legislature passed.

“This past session we passed some measures to address the funding gap, but I would describe them as modest at best and a far cry from what the Supreme Court ruled that our schools and students actually need,” he said recently. “We had a plan on our side of the aisle for fully funding education.”

He said that Senate Democrats had a better plan than the one that came from the Republican-led Senate majority coalition. 

“The Democratic bill that I co-sponsored, would have proposed a full plan for implementing basic education funding, including compensation reform, by 2018,” he said. “That bill should play a key role in setting the terms of the debate moving forward. 

“Reforms can be helpful, but only if they’re realistic reforms and not just unfunded mandates or ideological attacks on government that have nothing to do with what happens in our classrooms. Our schools and students need real-world reforms that pencil out, not rhetorical posturing or political game-playing.”

Frockt represents the 46th Legislative District, including Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and northeast Seattle.