Gov. Chris Gregoire has appointed Highline schools Superintendent Susan Enfield to serve on the newly created Joint Task Force on Education Funding. Dr. Enfield is one of three members appointed by the governor to the task force, which will be responsible for recommending sustainable funding options to support kindergarten through 12th grade education.

“I am honored by this appointment and have promised the Governor that I will do all I can to work with the other Task Force members to identify solutions that will best serve our students throughout the state of Washington,” said Enfield.

The other members appointed by the Governor are:

Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association and former teacher.
Jeff Vincent, Washington State Board of Education member and chief executive officer and president of Laird Norton Company LLC.

Eight legislators also serve on the committee. The joint task force is charged with:
Developing a proposal for a reliable and dependable funding mechanism to support basic education programs;
Making recommendations on how the Legislature can meet the requirements of HB 2261 (2009) and HB 2776 (2010) under which the Legislature committed to state basic education funding enhancements;
Identifying state budget reductions or eliminations to fund K-12 enhancements if the task force recommendation contains no new revenue; and
Considering specific transitional bilingual program recommendations.

The group’s final recommendations are due Dec. 31, 2012.