Editor,
Why is it the teachers union and other supporters of the school levy never talk about student performance?
Answer: Because, by any reasonable measure of success, Yelm Community Schools is failing and has been failing for as far back as we have public data to assess its performance, and it isn’t getting better.
Over the last 10 years, while average Yelm teacher salaries have climbed to nearly $122,000 per year (adjusted to 240-day work year, data from fiscal.wa.gov), with some exceeding $215,000 (ibid), our school, our community pride and joy, has failed to get nearly 80% of the students passing through it to a minimum level of proficiency in Math and English language arts.
“Support” presupposes an objective and accountability to achieving that objective. When you remove, or refuse to even discuss, the objective, when you refuse to accept any accountability for achieving the objective or demand you only be held accountable to some tangentially related measure, support becomes enabling.
Until Yelm Community Schools in and through its unions proposes and/or acknowledges a reasonable and measurable objective based on student demonstrated proficiency, and a plan to hold staff accountable to that objective, all we are doing is enabling a failing system at an average teacher salary of about $122,000 per year.
Vote no on the special election levy.
M. Douglas Martin
Thurston County