More than 250 of Vashon Island School District’s 1,536 students take a ferry from off-island to come to school on Vashon. These 271 students can be seen piling onto buses at the north-end ferry dock in the morning and streaming onto the Fauntleroy dock in the afternoon, but not all in this island community are welcoming of them and some wonder why they are allowed to take advantage of Vashon’s highly regarded schools while their parents don’t pay taxes to support them.

In the midst of the most recent lawsuit filed against the school district, The Beachcomber has decided to shed light on the topic. To start, Washington is an open enrollment state, meaning students can apply to enroll in any district they want, regardless of where they live. Districts can then decide whether to accept the application for enrollment based on if space is available, whether the district has programs or services to help the student improve and the student’s discipline record — including suspensions or expulsions.

Every year, the Vashon school district accepts commuting students based on the number of open spaces available. This transfer of students goes both ways, as roughly 100 island students attend school off-island at Tacoma’s Science and Math Institute, Tukwila’s Raisbeck Aviation High School and community colleges through the Running Start program.

In turn, school districts receive state funding proportionate to the number of students they have enrolled. The more students in a district, the more money it receives.

“State dollars follow the kids. Whichever district reports the enrollment gets the state funding,” Vashon Island School District Superintendent Michael Soltman said Friday.

Off-island students bring the district a total of $1.7 million in state funds — nearly 10 percent of the district’s $20 million budget. That money goes toward programs, teachers and activities that make the Vashon school district the highly regarded one that it is.

In fact, without off-island students, the district would be a much different place.

“In 2009 … the district faced the choice of making substantial cuts and/or elimination of programs and teachers, or to backfill the declining enrollment with commuter students to maintain some stability,” he said. “Even with added commuter enrollment, the district needed to raise $500,000 through the foundation (in 2009) to keep from handing out pink slips to teachers.”

This enrollment stability is crucial as it means teaching staff does not have to be adjusted annually.

Like it or not, commuting students make the schools what they are and provide necessary funding. As for the argument that the parents of commuting students are getting a free ride by not paying taxes, they pay taxes for schools they don’t use. No one is getting a free ride.