This week, Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed a major education initiative for young children. She recognizes that it makes a lot of sense to provide the foundation for learning early in a child’s life. And in the long term, it saves society a lot of money.

As important as this new initiative is, it doesn’t do anything for the children who are already in the “pipeline.”

For some of these kids, high school graduation means going on to college or community college. But too many other students have fallen behind and they continue to fall further behind. About 15 percent drop out by 12th grade. We can’t ignore these kids while focusing on their younger brothers and sisters.

Here are some basic facts about our state’s commitment to basic education. The state provides slightly less than 70 percent of funding for school districts around the state. Over the past three decades, we have lost our position as a national leader in public education. We now rank 42nd among the states for per-pupil investment, and we have the fifth-largest class sizes in the country.

The good news is that our students and teachers are committed to improving academic achievement. The percent of 10th-graders passing the latest WASL tests jumped more than 10 percent in reading and 8 percent in math compared to two years ago. But the problem is that a quarter of students are still failing the reading test, and fully half are failing math.

While we expect our children to achieve more than we did in school, we don’t provide the resources to enable them to do so. The state is continually in violation of its constitutional paramount duty to “make ample provision for the education of all children” and to do so by providing “for a general and uniform system of public schools.”

A systemic overhaul of financing may not be in the cards, but while the state has a $1.4 billion surplus, it can fund some incremental improvements. Right now, the state funds only five periods of high school. But high school is six periods long. Local districts have to pick up the cost of the sixth period or else let the students who can’t get into their sixth-period class linger and loiter.

Kent School District is a good example. The district requires 22 credits to graduate from high school and will be increasing this to 23 in 2007. Extra credits are required in math and science. That makes sense if we want our children to keep up with the world. But the state only funds five periods of school, which equals 20 credits over four years. So the money has to be scraped up from other sources.

Garfield High School in Seattle found itself in the absurd predicament of having to turn away eager students from their sixth-period classes. The principal agreed to write a letter of explanation that students applying for college could include in their application. But you wonder if a college would value a letter of explanation over a completed course in Spanish, calculus or orchestra.

For those students not headed off to college, the message is blunt: Why bother?

Wouldn’t we rather have a system that pays for all six periods, so that these kids get the attention they need to stay in school, learn and not drop out? Fifty years ago, when 60 percent of the work force was in unskilled jobs, they might have been able to get by. But not now, when 80 percent of jobs demand educational skills.

Recently, the Seattle Schools’ Community Advisory Committee issued its preliminary report. John Warner, retired chief administrative officer at Boeing, chairs the committee’s deliberations. The committee provides recommendations for a district financial strategy in support of academic excellence.

One of its first recommendations is for the state to fund six periods of coursework for all high school students. This will allow the district to increase courseload requirements for graduation so students are more likely to get into and pursue studies in college and community colleges, and to be ready to work.

The cost: about $800 per student, for a statewide expenditure of about $60 million. That’s less than one-half of 1 percent of the current state surplus. It’s a wise investment that works across the state, in urban, rural and suburban school districts.

John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute (www.eoionline.org), writes every other Wednesday. Write to him in care of the institute at 1900 Northlake Way, Suite 237, Seattle, WA 98103. His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.