7. Stop Ignoring Poverty: My school will never rank in the top 100 of Washington State. We’re a school of awesome teachers, innovative programs, high expectations, and we lead our region in test scores and student performance. Yet we aren’t a “good” school and never will be. The reason is simple: poverty. My school has poor kids, a lot of them. They don’t all have computers, they don’t have a place to study, they don’t have parents who can help them with Algebra, they don’t have spare money for tutors (or gas to get to one), they don’t always get breakfast, and they didn’t grow up with piles of books in their home. That doesn’t mean my students aren’t hardworking, passionate, and devoted to their studies, but it puts them, and our work at school, at a disadvantage.

This is especially true for funding. Olympia pays every teacher the same and funds every school the same. One of the things I teach my students is that “fair is not always equal.” We don’t have a rich community to pull levey money from to pay for new computers or updated textbooks. Olympia needs to consider the resources of the communities in the state, and learn to fund accordingly.