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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Inslee visits Vancouver

Governor in Clark County to talk about education funding, cap-and-trade plan

By , Columbian Political Writer
Published:
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Gov. Jay Inslee meets kindergarten students Thursday at Washington Elementary School in Vancouver.
Gov. Jay Inslee meets kindergarten students Thursday at Washington Elementary School in Vancouver. Inslee was in town to meet with education leaders and tout his plan to fund the state's public education system. Photo Gallery

While on a visit Thursday to Washington Elementary School, Gov. Jay Inslee told a room of education and community leaders they had a “good thing going.”

Listening to the leaders from the school district, the region and faith-based community explain how they leverage dollars by working together was akin to “Christmas in January,” Inslee said.

But, he said, they should “be concerned that probably all of the public dollars the people at this table are using to partner with the K-12 system, all of your dollars, are at risk,” Inslee said.

Inslee was at the Vancouver school to tout his education funding plan and urge locals to reach out to their legislators. The governor is pushing a cap-and-trade proposal on carbon emissions that he hopes would generate revenue to fund the state’s public education system. Republicans, who control the state Senate, have pushed back on Inslee’s proposal.

On Thursday, he listened to about a dozen regional leaders, from the Rev. David Tinney of the First United Methodist Church to Elishe Menashe of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington, talk about the school’s Family & Community Resource Center.

The Vancouver school district has served as a model in its successful work with community leaders to help low-income families and students tap resources — from housing to food.

Inslee told the room that the McCleary decision, which called on the Legislature to fully fund the state’s K-12 public education system, is looming over the session.

“The McCleary decision has ordered the state to put billions of dollars into the K-12 system without telling us how to generate those funds, and some may look at your budgets as a place to draw down money like you’re a bank account and put it in the K-12 budget,” Inslee said.

While in Vancouver, he also stopped at Washington State University Vancouver to speak to students about college affordability.

The governor’s budget also includes a tuition freeze at colleges and universities and expanding financial aid.

Liliana Salazar, 23, a senior at WSUV, told the governor she was an undocumented student and grateful she lived in a state where she could afford to attend a university.

Last year, the governor signed the Washington DREAM Act into law, allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for state need grants for college.

Inslee told Salazar that he “recognized the talent” that was available to the state when he signed the bill into law.

“We knew you would be here when we passed the DREAM Act,” he told Salazar.

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Columbian Political Writer