I admit that I get confused with the phonics between a C and a K.  I also admit that I did not know what SinC stood for, Student Intervention Coordinator. I just found out that the position is planned to be cut at my kid’s school. In this role, kids’ lives literally get saved so why cut the position?

It’s in the difference of cut and kut, it’s not part of the curriculum.  There is no money for “extras”.  Schools are about reading and writing! Right? Wrong. For some school is a place to get a secured meal otherwise some kids don’t eat. For others school is a safe haven away from real disturbing family matters.

The City of Lynnwood’s motto is “A great deal more,” but after these budget cuts… it’s not in our schools. I just got an email that Verdant Health stopped funding the before- and after-school exercise Move 60 program, stating that it didn’t align with the health district’s new priorities.  Yes, read that again: Providing exercise opportunities for kids does not align with our health district priorities.

We live in Washington state of the United States of America, and yet the state can’t give enough resources to our public schools to provide after-school workouts or student intervention coordinators. Don’t get me started on the lack of art in schools. Thankfully, the Foundation for Edmonds School District started a campaign to “Save the Arts” but that doesn’t mean that they are safe from the chopping block.

 So why the cuts? Just like the difference between a C and a K, it’s a difference of “chool” and “afety.” Public Schools doesn’t sound as catchy as Public Safety, where massive amounts of our taxes dollars get funneled through the guise of “it’s for our safety.” Here in Lynnwood we have some schools that don’t even have clean drinking water yet the red carpet is about to roll out for our new fancy gigantic jail opening soon.

It’s almost like it’s design that way: We can’t fund the schools when we have a fancy new jail to pay off. Think the two are not related? It’s almost like the quality of a child’s school experience doesn’t affect our public safety. I don’t know, is it affect or effect? At this point with all my advocacy, I’m learning no matter how I write, spell or speak, the math is not adding up. Sink, Sinc, Sync … it all sounds the same to me. We sunk our bright future by failing to fund essential services to our community schools.

Edmonds School District’s budget with all its cuts is set to be approved in the beginning of July. The school board can only work with what the state allocates them and it’s not enough. Hopefully someone from the state or an angel with deep pockets can help save the SinCs, the arts, the kids and my hopes that we as a society actually do care about their wellbeing.

— By Elizabeth Lunsford

Author Elizabeth Lunsford lives in Lynnwood.