Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 2, 1999
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Governor says learning assistance is critical to education reform

OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke today said education reforms to improve student achievement must start with a commitment to ensure that children from every background can succeed.

Locke said his $52 million proposal to expand and restructure the Learning Assistance Program is the linchpin of his plan to make education the great equalizer for the state's next generation.

"Our proposals to hire 1,000 new elementary school teachers, continue the Washington Reading Corps, provide college scholarships to high school students, and expand higher-education enrollment are focused on making achievement count everywhere in Washington," Locke said. "But as we shape an education system that meets the demands of the 21st century, we have to make sure no child is left behind."

The governor said his proposal for the learning-assistance program provides the opportunity to more effectively target extra help to schools across the state that face the biggest challenges in improving student performance.

"This is an opportunity program — not a poverty program — but it's based on the fact that schools with a lot of children from low-income families have more difficulty reaching the high standards of student performance we have set for our state," the governor said. "And it's a fact that this problem is more acute in rural areas than in our cities."

It is clear from the results of statewide testing that many fourth- and seventh-graders do not meet state standards for reading and mathematics, especially in school districts with limited resources and large numbers of low-income families. Many of these school districts are in rural Washington.

"We all know about the two Washingtons — the metropolitan one where wealth abounds, and the rural one where low-income families are struggling," Locke said. "Improving student achievement in rural schools is not only an important part of our strategy for expanding opportunities in rural Washington, but it is also the essence of our commitment to design an education system based on need, and not partisan politics."

Locke's learning-assistance proposal provides sustained extra help to school districts that now can be inadvertently punished instead of rewarded for boosting student performance. Currently, learning-assistance funding is based on the percentage of students with low scores on standardized tests. When districts use learning-assistance funding and succeed in improving student learning, their learning-assistance allocation is reduced.

"We want to avoid a situation in which a school successfully uses learning-assistance funding, loses some of that money, and then has to cut back on the extra help that contributed to improved student performance," Locke said. "The success of one fourth-grade class should not mean less help for the next."

Research has shown a high correlation between schools with high percentages of low-income students and those schools' performance on statewide tests. As the percentage of low-income students in a school increases, test scores decline. Recognizing that problem, the governor's budget proposal would target learning-assistance funds to school districts based on numbers of students enrolled in the free- and reduced-price lunch program.

The governor's proposal would add $52 million to the learning-assistance program, bringing the total available in the 1999-01 biennium to $172 million. No school district would lose any learning-assistance funding.

Locke's plan would provide rural school districts the largest percentage increases — up to 327 percent more — but would also allow schools in larger cities to make gains. For example, Seattle would receive 52 percent more learning-assistance funding, an increase of $2 million in the next school year. Spokane's increase would be 69 percent, or $1.5 million, and Tacoma's 65 percent boost would mean an additional $1.8 million for schools in that city.

Under the existing learning-assistance program, school districts such as those in Walla Walla, La Conner, Snoqualmie, Republic, Pullman, and South Bend saw their funding decline in the 1997-98 school year.

The Walla Walla School District lost $27,000 in learning-assistance funding during the last school year. But under Locke's proposal, it would gain $289,000 in the next school year. Under the current system, the Pasco School District would see its learning-assistance funds increase by $12,000 next school year. The governor's proposal would mean a $400,000 increase.

"We have raised our standards for learning, and we are asking students, teachers and school districts to do more to meet those standards," Locke said. "Now, we must step up and help those schools that need the most help to achieve our goals."

Because learning problems can occur among children of all economic backgrounds, the governor's proposal allows school districts to distribute funds based on each school's unique needs. Of the additional $52 million devoted to increasing per-pupil funding:

- $43 million would go to providing more individual attention for students who need extra help to meet state learning standards.

- $9 million would be provided for short-term targeted assistance grants to low-performing schools.

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