School levy lid isn't applied equally across state

Susan Taylor knows that $225,000 will be saved as the Issaquah School District cuts bus service to students who live within a mile of their schools.

But she wonders why her children have to walk or be driven to school this year while students in Bellevue and on Mercer Island who live a similar distance away get picked up by the bus.

In the Lake Washington School District, calls from taxpayers and parents come in like clockwork every summer when the weeds run rampant. How can the district let its schoolyards do so poorly when residents regularly approve multimillion-dollar levies, the callers ask.

Welcome to the unequal world of school funding in Washington state.

Because of a funding system approved by the Legislature more than 20 years ago, a handful of school districts across the state are allowed to ask taxpayers for more levy money than others.

Instead of the state-mandated levy lid of 24 percent of a district's operating budget, some districts can ask for as much as 33 percent or more.

The difference can mean several million dollars more each year for a district to pay for books and buses and extra classes and lower student fees.

In Bellevue, for example, a 30.6 percent levy lid translates into a $6.4 million annual bonus compared with a district of the same size with a 24 percent levy lid.

In Issaquah and Lake Washington, levy lids near 24 percent mean fewer transportation options, fewer classes and fewer programs.

School officials are quick to point out that the levy caps are just one piece of an outdated funding system that hasn't kept pace with the cost of education.

This year that system is getting new scrutiny.

The committee Gov. Christine Gregoire appointed, Washington Learns, is conducting a top-to-bottom, 18-month review of the state's education system, including how it is funded.

The Legislature is also expected to revisit education funding during its next session, said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, who sits on the Washington Learns K-12 education-advisory committee.

"We have to fix the system," Hunter said. "We rely too much on levies, and that's not a good solution."

The differences in levy lids arose during the1970s and early 1980s when, after a series of lawsuits, the Legislature overhauled how the state funded education.

The state committed itself to fund basic education — everything from transportation to special education, teacher salaries to textbooks — but districts were allowed to ask voters for levies to fund extras.

The state set a base lid: A district could ask voters to approve no more than 24 percent of the money the district received from the state and federal government for its operating budgets. (No cap was put on special levies that funded capital-improvement projects, such as building schools or buying computers.)

However, the state allowed districts already asking voters for more than 24 percent to be grandfathered in, which meant 91 of the state's 296 districts could ask voters for more money.

Most of those grandfathered districts — including Lake Washington, Riverview and Issaquah — were asking for only slightly more than the 24 percent limit.

But a few had set their levies considerably higher, including Mercer Island at 33.7 percent, Tukwila at 33.5, Seattle at 32.9 and Bellevue at 30.6.

School districts with lower levy lids say the restrictions make it that much harder to balance their budgets given the already declining state support. Many districts now rely heavily on levies to fill in the funding gaps.

In Lake Washington, board members are struggling to cut $3.5 million from the 2006-07 operating budget to pay for increases in bus fuel, cost-of-living salary increases and health-care costs.

"We are staring into an abyss," said superintendent Don Saul. "It's agony personified."

Some bus routes were consolidated this year, lengthening how long some students spend getting to and from school. High-school athletic and summer-school fees were increased. Some money the district would have used to cut class sizes was instead used to maintain existing class sizes. And the district ordered a 10 percent across-the-board reduction in administrative departments' budgets.

In Issaquah, students who live within a mile of school will have to walk or arrange private transportation this school year. The reason: The state doesn't pay to pick up students within a mile. In fact, the state gives the district about half of what it will cost to pay for increased fuel prices, district spokeswoman Sara Niegowski said.

That doesn't sit well with parents such as Taylor.

"Something needs to be changed so that the district has more money," she said. "Our kids are going to pay the price."

Meanwhile, districts such as Mercer Island and Bellevue are adding programs, and they already offer a wider range of Advanced Placement, honors and International Baccalaureate classes.

That extra levy money also helps cover the cost of a seven-period school day for Mercer Island and Bellevue's middle- and high-school students — most districts have six-period days.

But even schools with higher levy lids say they are hurting.

Bellevue will probably have to cut $500,000 to $750,000 during the 2007-08 school year, said deputy superintendent Karen Clark.

Mercer Island has opted not to replace custodians and administrative assistants who left recently, and the district is watching its utility and fuel bills more closely, said Liz Dodd, assistant superintendent for support services.

"They are minor cuts comparative to other districts," Dodd said. "But we've had to tighten up more than we've historically had to do."

The solution, most agree, is a state-funded system that is fair to all.

"If you have a higher levy lid, you are allowed to collect more money from local voters, and yes, more money does support a broader range of programs," Clark said. "But if education were adequately funded, then what difference would it make where the money was coming from? The point should not be to punish districts by bringing their levy lids down, but provide an equal education for everyone."

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com