West Seattle families and students are back from their trip to Olympia for Thursday’s Day of Advocacy for education funding, part of the “Billion-Dollar Bake Sale” campaign. We asked a local leader, Gatewood Elementary parent/advocate Megan Fisher, how it went and whether she could share photos – here’s her report:

The Billion Dollar Bake Sale in Olympia was a huge success. We had about 400 people down at the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol Campus rallying for public education funding, we heard from many speakers at the rally, including State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, who reminded the crowd that it is the Legislature’s constitutional duty to fully fund public schools and we are underfunding K-12 education each year by $4 Billion. We heard from educators, students, school board directors, city council people, and the president of the WEA (Washington Education Association).

We had representation from many West Seattle Schools including an incredible amount of Gatewood Elementary parents and students and parents and students from Genesee Hill Elementary School, Pathfinder K-8, Lafayette Elementary, and West Seattle Elementary were represented from West Seattle.

Gatewood Elementary also sent their 5th graders down on a field trip with Principal Kyna Hogg and it was an incredibly invigorating day for advocacy. The students on the field trip and the parents and students who came down from Gatewood got to meet with Representative Joe Fitzgibbon and Representative Brianna Thomas in the rotunda of the capitol building – the “Gatewood Gator Chant” could be heard echoing through the rotunda of the capitol building – it was a really magical moment! “We’re Gatewood Gators through and through, we’re safe and kind in all we do, we’re responsible, you know it’s true, we’re Gatewood Gators through and through, CHOMP, CHOMP CHOMP!!” in addition to chanting “no more crumbs, fund our schools!” ]

The Senate passed three bills yesterday related to funding education that are on their way to the Ways and Means Committee for approval now and it seems like public support for education funding is proving to be successful!

The organizers of the statewide Billion-Dollar Bake Sale campaign were impressed with the incredible showing of support from the West Seattle community.