Washington state, like every state across the country, is confronting some of the toughest decisions it has ever had to make in order to balance its budget. It is a dreadful situation that The Spokesman-Review recently reported, stating Spokane Public Schools is expecting a funding gap between $9 million and $12 million, impacting nearly 150 positions. Budget reductions at this level will no doubt be traumatic and challenging for our school systems.

I understand the scope of these challenges. I know there are no easy answers, no simple solutions, and no way not to impact our children and teachers by these budget reductions.

I can face that reality. But I also want it to be a priority to come up with solutions that have the least amount of impact on our children, while continuing to advance and improve our education system to effectively educate the leaders of tomorrow.

These tough decisions require a collaborative problem-solving process among all stakeholders. Effective solutions will need to be creative and challenge policies that hinder outcomes that are best for our children.

As a parent with young children, I want to know that these tough decisions are being made with a few key principles in mind:

• First and foremost, parents, teachers, school administrators, teacher associations and other stakeholders are working together collaboratively to identify creative solutions that preserve the integrity of the purpose of our school system – to educate all our children.

• Solutions should be prioritized to have the least amount of impact on our children. Not the least amount of impact on any current contracts, or administration, or policies, etc. The least amount of impact on our children!

• We need to make sure the most effective, talented, engaged and dedicated teachers are the ones that remain in the classrooms with our children every day.  Unfortunately, with such a substantial level of layoffs, many amazing teachers may be out of work.  They shouldn’t be out of work, though, knowing underperforming, less-effective teachers remain in the classrooms with our children.  Enough of the “last in, first out” policies.  These policies are putting our kids and school systems at a disadvantage.

• Teachers’ rights should be protected. They should be treated fairly, paid fairly and honored at the highest level for the contribution they make. And great teachers shouldn’t be laid off, when other underperforming teachers remain – solely because of their tenure.

I also understand all too well the challenging dynamics of our current teacher-evaluation system. Current evaluations do not adequately represent a teacher’s performance level, and these layoffs cannot be based entirely on current evaluation systems.

I don’t think that matters, though. I think teachers, principals and school administrators know full well who is succeeding at their job, who connects well with the children, who is working hard to overcome their challenges and also who struggles so much that the children’s performance suffers, and who has “checked out” and doesn’t even seem interested in children and teaching.

I’ve been active enough in my kids’ education to know that the teachers and administrators know who is not contributing in the most positive way to the school environment and learning success of our children.

These tough times require some tough choices. But let’s make sure antiquated policies do not get in the way of making the decisions we all know are best for our children. Let’s not knowingly put our kids’ (and our) future in jeopardy any longer.