Study says state is 42nd in schools spending

A new national study ranks Washington 42nd out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in how much it spends per year to educate each public-school student.

In its annual "Quality Counts" report, Education Week newspaper said Washington spent $6,779 per pupil in the 2001-02 school year, the latest data available, well below the national average of $7,734. Washington, D.C., spent the most — $11,269 — followed by New Jersey at $10,235. (All the figures were adjusted for regional cost differences.)

But the report, released yesterday, drew no conclusions about whether Washington is spending enough on its schools. Many state education advocates strongly believe it is not.

Education finance, the report said, is a hot topic across the nation, especially as state legislatures head into their 2005 sessions.

"America's system for financing education is at a crossroads," said Virginia Edwards, Education Week editor and publisher.

For decades, the goal of school spending was equity. Now, the attention has turned to how well the dollars are used, Edwards said, and whether schools have enough money to meet the new demands of state learning standards and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Sixteen states face lawsuits over their school-finance systems, the study said. Cases in 20 more states have been decided or settled in the past five years, mostly in favor of the plaintiffs.

Information To view the full Quality Counts report on the Web, go to www.educationweek.org For the Washington Association of School Administrator's Ample Funding Project, go to www.wasa-oly.org/asfp.htm

That list soon may include Washington. The state's largest teachers union, the Washington Education Association, decided last spring to sue, charging that the Legislature had failed to live up to its constitutional duty to make ample provision for the education of all students. The timing of the lawsuit is yet to be determined, said Vice President David Scott.

The Education Week study, he said, "doesn't do anything to dampen our enthusiasm."

In addition, 11 school districts filed suit last summer, saying there is a $100 million gap between what the state pays for special education and what it costs to serve special-education students.

The Legislature itself, for the first time in nearly 20 years, may form a bipartisan committee to look closely at how well it funds public schools. A House work group, chaired by Rep. Bill Fromhold, D-Vancouver, started work on the project this summer, and he hopes that a House-Senate committee will be formed this session.

But more money doesn't always mean better results. Washington, D.C., is a prime example. In the Education Week study, it ranks first in per-pupil spending but near the bottom in student achievement in math and reading on an exam known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

And Washington state, despite its low spending rating, tied for 16th in fourth-grade reading on the NAEP exam and tied for 10th in fourth-grade math.

There are two big questions in education finance, says Jacob Adams, research associate professor at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs, who is directing a large, four-year study of school finance.

One is whether there is enough money in the system to get the job done. (Nationally, about $500 billion a year is spent on education, Education Week says.) That's what's being decided in some of the court cases, Adams says. It's also being examined in a number of studies, including some in Washington state.

But whether schools are using the money they have effectively is an important question, too, Adams says. That's what his project is exploring.

His study will look closely at school spending in Washington and three other states. The first results will be out this year.

But Barbara Mertens of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) thinks it's already clear that Washington schools don't have enough money. Too many students aren't reaching state standards. And the districts are spending more money than the state provides to help students reach those standards, she said.

WASA is doing a study, too: "The Ample Funding Project," designed to document how many local dollars are spent on "basic education," which Washington courts have said should be paid for with state funds. The third part of that report, due out today, concluded that the state is falling very short.

Districts spent $123 million more on classified staff than the state provides, for example, the report states.

Also in the Education Week report, Washington ranked about average in teacher quality, school climate, standards and accountability, a slight improvement from previous years.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com