Recommendations of the Washington Basic Education Task Force
Among the recommendations from the state’s Basic Education Task Force to the state Legislature:
- Paying teachers different amounts, comparable to regional wages paid to nonschool employees in their communities.
- Defining basic education as the schooling needed to help students meet new high-school-graduation requirements adopted by the state Board of Education, and Washington’s college-admission standards.
- Increasing instructional time, particularly for high-school students, and therefore paying teachers more.
- Decreasing class sizes in grades kindergarten through third grade.
- Paying teachers for a set number of training days outside of the 180 days of instructional time and strictly reserving all instructional days for education.