It made me very sad to see the letter from Mr. Terry in the July 12th paper and now the “Vote No” signs around town. It worries me that people are making an important decision about our children’s education without all the facts.

I understand that people have concerns about how the Northshore School District (NSD) is managing money. A few years ago, I was one of them. However, over the past few years, I have worked hard to better understand how the district and state funding works.

The short answer is, the state education funding system doesn’t work and the NSD has to deal with that fact every year. Over the past five years, the district has been forced to cut $20 million from its budget. Parents, volunteers and PTAs have been able to soften some of the blow with the loss of programs and staff. However, each year it gets harder, each year the cuts affect the children more and more.

While attending school board meetings and private meetings with the district staff, I have learned a lot about the budget process. The biggest thing I learned is that the state is grossly underfunding schools, not just the NSD, but every school in the state.

I have worked hard with other education advocates across the state in order to get the Legislature to live up to its responsibility to fully fund schools, its paramount duty according to our constitution.

While we have made great progress in the last two years, there is still work to be done. I will continue the fight and would invite anyone interested to join me.

Until the state lives up to its duty, the NSD is doing all they can do to keep our district one of the best, for now that means a supplemental levy; one that will pay for no frills or extras, but will simply try to maintain what we have.

Please vote “yes” on Aug. 17. It’s for the kids and it’s the right thing to do!

Corinne Patten, Bothell