I find it unbelievable that at a time when the State of Washington has a budget deficit of over $2.8 billion and is cutting direct services to children, seniors and the disabled, that the state House and Senate would continue to fund, rather than delay the increased training and certification requirements of home care aides.

Not only do we already have state funded training in place (there’s no other profession that the state pays the training for), but this increased training and certification requirement initiative, in my opinion, is a luxury at this time. This additional training implementation will cost the state over $6.5 million, which could surely be used somewhere by a disabled child or struggling senior.

I’m not opposed to requirements and conformity in training, but when you consider that this initiative requires 75 hours of training for a home care aide, and we already have training in place of 85 hours for a certified nurse’s aide (CNA), it doesn’t seem well thought out.

Even Gov. Christine Gregoire thinks it’s preferable to delay. Remember, these are our tax dollars at work and you might consider contacting your legislators and suggesting that they revisit and delay this increased training, at least for a year or two until we can do it without further harming the most vulnerable folks in our communities.

Lois Etienne, Sumner (Federal Way business owner)