Michael T. Miyoshi

Fix the Budget Woes with One Word

I have a simple plan to fix all the state of Washington’s fiscal woes. It only involves one word and it would take an act of Congress to come to fruition. But this modest proposal would fix Washington’s financial problems.

The simple fix for all of Washington’s fiscal problems is to simply change the constitution with a single word – “not.” Article IX of the state constitution takes much of the state’s annual budget. The Article is about education and the following change to Article IX, Section One would get rid of much of the financial burden on Washington’s cash flow:

It is NOT the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders…

Placing “NOT” in the section would free up all the education dollars and make budget cuts in other areas smaller or even unnecessary. According to many pundits, the current state of education is abhorrent and the system needs to be overhauled anyway. So instead of trying to fix schools by enacting legislation without proper funding behind it, maybe the state should get out of the education business altogether.

Many people believe that there are plenty of resources on TV and the internet which could be used to replace teachers. I can just imagine all the learning that would take place when all public schools shut their doors and parents figured out that they could merely put their kids in front of the computer and leave for work. The internet would be alive with learning and kids would be so much more ready for entering the work force than they currently are when they leave the much maligned halls of public education. And they could enter that workforce at a much younger age without their teachers getting in the way.

Students would not be the only ones who benefited from this modest proposal. Teachers and others employed by the public schools would be free to find jobs where they could make a difference in society or at least make more money. And the state would not be footing the bill. I imagine lots of different businesses being started by those currently employed in education. Some might even take seriously the thought that they could make more money being baby sitters than educators (thirty kids for eight hours for 180 days at $10/hour is over $400,000).

People believe that there are no easy fixes to the budget crisis facing Washington legislators, but what could be simpler than adding a single word to the constitution. True, the state legislature would need to pass the amendment to the constitution, but without the drain of funding education, the state would be free to build bridges, fix potholes, and rescue people economically. (There might be more people to rescue later, but future legislative sessions could wrestle with those issues.)

The simple fix I propose should sit very well with those who govern the state. After all, the currently proposed budgets fit the addition of NOT to Article IX of the state constitution. After all, cutting pay for teachers and lowering the number of days students attend school only makes sense with a new Article IX. With the current wording of the constitution, legislation to cut schools beyond the bare bones they are already operating under seems more than wrong. It might even be considered illegal or unconstitutional. However, with the new word in Article IX, there would never be a question to the legality and even rightness of denying everybody free public education.

The experiment of free public education can finally come to an end in the state of Washington with a single word. Those involved with education including the students would be free to pursue other endeavors and contribute to the good of the state in ways that do not take from its coffers. Students would be able to say once and for all, “No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks.” All with one modest proposal. All with one simple word. NOT!

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Published:
13 December 2011 in The Monroe Monitor & Valley News
19 December 2011 in River Current News

Mrs. Pitman

I have been thinking about the Pitman family for the last week or so. They have always been great friends for as long as I can remember. Part of that is because Dad and Mr. Pitman worked together. Part is because they had kids for each of us except Scott. (Tim and I are the same age; Dan and Russell are the same age; and Gail and Marcie are the same age.) It has been forever since we have seen each other but I am sure our next reunion would be like all the others. Whenever we see each other, it is like we saw each other just last week. It just takes us a little longer to catch up on the past events than it used to. It is great to have such great friends like the Pitmans.

As great of friends as the whole Pitman family have been to our family, I will always have a special place in my heart for Mrs. Pitman. Her wonderful smile and infectious laugh are her trademarks and are indelibly written into my memory. But as great as these memories are, Mrs. Pitman holds this special place in my heart because she has given me two great gifts in my life. She literally saved my life and she helped me to have an open mind when trying new foods and new experiences.

I do not know how old I was when Mrs. Pitman saved my life but I could not have been more than four years old. We were living in Grants, New Mexico at the time so Russell was already born. Our two families were at some place picnicking or camping by water. I know that at least two of us kids, probably Tim and I, were wading in the water. I can remember just being close to the edge and having a great time. My parents were not and still are not great swimmers but Mrs. Pitman has always been around water and was a lifeguard in her youth (which might be why I was a lifeguard too). I am sure that they were all being watchful parents but even so, nobody could have foreseen that there would be a deep spot right next to where we were playing.

Whether we were at a stream or lake, there was some sort of ledge right at the bank. As I said, Tim and I were wading around on some sort of ledge or lip and did not have a care in the world. And then all of a sudden, I must have stepped off the ledge. I thought that I was going straight and staying on solid ground but obviously, I was wrong. I remember very vividly sinking down under the water. I stepped off into nothingness and went straight down. I looked up and saw the top of the water above my outstretched hands. It was dark underwater but the sunlight shone above. And that is all I remember.

Sometimes I think that I recall a hand reaching down to get me and sometimes I think it is just the story my parents tell. At any rate, Mrs. Pitman reached down into the water from shore and grabbed me before I went too far down. There have been times when I have dreamed that I was ten or twenty feet underwater and there was an infinite depth below me before I was saved. Maybe those dreams of such a dramatic rescue rather than the reality of an alert parent grabbing a child who has just gotten into water somewhat above his head are what endear Mrs. Pitman to me. But it does not really matter whether her rescue was dramatic or not. She literally saved me from the depths and I will be forever grateful that she did.

After saving my life, it would seem that there would be nothing else that Mrs. Pitman would need to do be my hero but she also changed my life when I was a teenager. When Tim and I were in eighth grade (Dan and Russell were in seventh), the Pitman family moved up to Spokane. It was in the spring of the year and they decided that they would camp out until they found a house that they liked. Mr. Pitman moved up to take a job with Dad and so we all were going to be together again. That summer was one of the best that I remember. We camped out with the Pitmans. Tim, Dan, Russell, and I went to summer camp together. We played lots in the lake. And we just had great times together.

One time when we were camped out on the lake, we swam, caught fish, and ate cake the Pitman way. Swimming was great fun. The water was clear and the ground beneath the surface sloped gently out so that a person could walk out thirty yards or more before his head went underwater. And we caught as much perch as we could eat in one day, Dan even caught a catfish. Mr. and Mrs. Pitman liked to eat fish so we had some great fish feeds. We even tried the catfish. It is ironic but Tim and Dan did not like fish even though Mrs. Pitman was the one who changed my eating habits for the good.

I do not know why Tim and Dan did not like fish but they would not get it close to them. The funny thing was that Mrs. Pitman told Russell and me that we should not knock something until we tried it. I guess that she had told her own children this message too. So they must have tried fish sometime and not liked it. Anyway. The other part of the story is that Mrs. Pitman made a fantastic chocolate cake. She made it from sour milk and whatever other scratch ingredients were in the recipe. It was always delicious. Even when she made it in the camper oven! One morning after Mrs. Pitman had made her famous chocolate cake, we were deciding what to eat for breakfast. Tim and Dan wanted chocolate cake with milk on top. Russell and I were astonished. We ate dinner or lunch foods for breakfast but dessert? Yuch! But in her patient and loving way, Mrs. Pitman said that we should try it before we passed judgment. Tim and Dan nodded agreement with this admonishment (something that kids seldom did) so we tried it. Of course, we liked it. Who would have guessed that chocolate cake in a bowl with milk on top would be better than cereal? It was like having cake and ice cream except the cream was not iced. What a treat!

Since that time, I have tried almost every food that I have had the opportunity to eat. Sometimes I even try new things in restaurants. And every time I have chocolate cake, I think of Mrs. Pitman. As a matter of fact, that was why I was thinking of the Pitmans in the first place. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I introduced my own children to the wonderful treat of chocolate cake and milk. For breakfast. I will be forever grateful to Mrs. Pitman for her admonishment to try it. Both food and other adventures. And I can never thank her enough for saving my life. Thank you, Mrs. Pitman.

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From Long Walks Home unpublished.

Help! I Am Being Robbed!

I am being robbed, and there is not much I can do about it. I have been robbed before by the same group and even now, they are planning on taking more from me. I do not really have a choice in the matter because of who the people doing the robbing are, but at least I can give a cry for help. For myself and those just like me who are also being robbed.

If I was being robbed because of where I live, I could move. If I was being robbed at the store where I shop, I could change stores. But I am being robbed because of my profession, and even though I could find a different career, I am not ready to do that yet. I love what I do and I love the people I work with. Therein lies the rub.

When the gang that robbed me before did so, they figured that they could pull off the heist in plain sight. They figured that nobody would care if they did it. And they figure the same thing will happen this time. Nobody will say anything, because they run this place. After all, they are the government.

When the legislature took away money that their constituents promised to teachers, they stole from all of us. Not just teachers, everybody. Now, they are threatening to steal more money from a group of teachers. They want to take the extra pay from those who are recognized as National Board Certified Teachers.

Personally, I did not become nationally certified for the money. I did it because I figured I was as good of a teacher as those around me who had become certified. The only thing that I cared about when it came to the money was that I got back the amount I paid into the process. Like many accomplishments in my life, I became nationally certified just to say I did it.

There are others like me who teach because they love what they do and they love the kids. Many others. We have gone through heavy-handed school reform. We have gone through countless hours of training and retraining, sometimes on subjects which are merely to cover somebody’s backside. We have gone through periods of harsh criticism and intense scrutiny. We have gone through budget cuts and broken promises, sometimes to the point where we wonder if anybody values what we do. And through it all, we still teach.

Contrary to what most of us reply when asked, we do not teach either general or specific subject matter. Rather, we teach children and young adults. We teach them how to read and write and do arithmetic. We teach them how to learn. We teach them how to follow and how to lead. We teach them how to be responsible citizens of our country and of our world.

When the legislature steals the money due to educators, they really are stealing from everybody. They are taking away opportunities from the students to have more individual class time with teachers because class sizes increase. They are taking potential teachers away from the pool of committed individuals who might choose education as a profession except for the broken promises and uncertain funding. They are taking trust from the taxpayers who believe that the schools are just not using their money wisely. And they are taking qualified applicants away from employers who wonder why it seems kids do not want to work anymore.

It is interesting to me that in many industries, money is thrown at problems which might or might not go away with the spending. But in educational funding, no penny is sacred. Even if it was put into law. Back in the early 1970s, a billboard in Seattle read, “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE – Turn out the lights.” With the legislature proposing to steal from not just teachers, but all of education, I wonder if somebody might post a billboard that says, “Will the last person leaving the schools, please turn out the lights?” Then again, who would there be who could read it?

If the legislature is poised to steal from me, teachers, and indeed all of education, who are they poised to steal from next?

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