It feels like every day I open the newspaper I read a new story about school districts struggling to pay for fuel for busses, food for students, and salaries for teachers. Giving every child in this state a good education should be our number one priority, so why aren’t we getting any relief from D.C.?

My congressional representative, Dave Reichert, is part of the problem. He voted for George Bush’s budgets that gutted education spending, and for lots of new mandates that many districts couldn’t pay for even under good economic conditions. Now, because of insufficient funds, Bellevue teachers may be going on strike.

Unfunded mandates from the federal government didn’t do anything but hurt our kids, but they did let ‘compassionate conservatives’ like George Bush and Dave Reichert claim they were doing something about this issue.