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Every student learns the American mantra from their teachers and parents: work hard, play by the rules, and you'll have a chance to get ahead. This month's crop of graduating high school seniors is powerful evidence that Washington's students do step up to their responsibilities. But we (voters and legislators alike) have defaulted on our end of the bargain.

Instead of ensuring economic opportunity for the more than 1 million children in Washington's K-12 schools, and the 250,000 students in our state's public colleges and universities, we've eroded it. Over the past three years we've cut $2.7 billion from K-12 education and another $1.3 billion from higher education. That's not just money, that's classes, counseling, arts, music, personal attention and tutoring.