Educators look for more action by Legislature

By The Dispatch and the WNPA Olympia Bureau
Last Thursday was a day people like Tom Seigel was waiting for.
Governor Jay Inslee signed into state law legislation that will keep the local school levy lid at 28 percent until 2019. That lid was scheduled to drop to 24 percent in 2018, causing the so-called levy cliff – a precipitous drop in funding that Seigel, the superintendent of Bethel School District, and other educators warned would have a dire effect on schools.
“By this bill, we are going to rescue our schools from the levy cliff,” Inslee said during a press conference in Olympia.
A levy cliff could have occurred if the levy lid -- the amount that local school districts can raise through voter-approved operating and maintenance levies -- was lowered without additional funding coming from the state. The result could have been teacher dismissals, program cuts, and students without access to resources.
The legislation (Senate Bill 5023) preventing the levy cliff takes effect on July 23.
Inslee noted that the bill won’t remove the Legislature’s motivation to put forth a plan to fund basic education as mandated by the state Supreme Court in the McCleary decision. “It clears the way for legislators to focus on the larger task at hand — fully funding education this year,” he said.
Seigel and educators from school districts statewide, including Eatonville, agree with that assessment.
“Uncertainties about our funding for next year” were eliminated last week, Seigel said. “Now, the only question left is McCleary. We remain hopeful that lawmakers will promptly resolve this issue and provide ample funding to support our schools and children across the state."
In 2010, the state’s highest court determined that Washington wasn’t fulfilling its constitutional duty to fund basic education and ordered the Legislature to implement a funding plan by Sept. 1, 2018. Since then, the Legislature’s delay in meeting its duty has accumulated a daily $100,000 penalty against the state, imposed by the Supreme Court in 2015, that has now reached a total of $58 million.
Currently, most school districts may raise up to 28 percent of their operating revenue through voter-approved property tax levies. A levy base is calculated by adding state and federal funding. Voter-approved tax levies are intended to fund programs and expenditures outside of basic education, but districts sometimes use these funds to pay for basic-education programs and functions when state dollars aren’t sufficient.
The levy cliff-blocking legislation was passed by the House of Representatives March 9 on an 87-10 vote and by the Senate March 8 48-1.
The legislation requires districts to create separate accounts for local and state funds. Also, the state superintendent of public instruction must approve a proposed local levy before a district can take it to the voters.

Reporter Grace Swanson of the WNPA Olympia Bureau contributed to this report, which is part of coverage of the Legislature and state issues through a reporting internship sponsored by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation.