School superintendents split on levy bill

As they consider another year of big funding cuts for public schools, some state lawmakers want to soften that blow by allowing districts to do more to help themselves.

Yet they face opposition from some of the very people they aim to help. A number of school superintendents, including 33 in Northwest Washington, oppose a bill that would allow them to raise more money from their local taxpayers.

The reason is equity. While rich districts could benefit, the superintendents say the measure would leave poorer ones further behind.

"There are some legislators who are in some very affluent areas who ... just want it, and to heck with everyone else. I'm really irritated about it," said Superintendent Nick Brossoit of the Edmonds School District.

Even though his district could gain, he says he "wouldn't want to see benefits to my community at the expense of others in the state."

Proponents of the bill — including the association representing all superintendents in the state — say it's a stopgap measure that would help poorer districts, too, by adding money to what's called the "levy equalization" pot.

"No one looks at this picture with any righteousness or dignity," said state Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, one of the bill's sponsors. "But life is complex and messy and difficult, and we have got to do the best we can with the world in which we live today."

The amount of money that school districts can raise from local levies has been a sore point for decades.

One reason is that although the limit in most districts is 24 percent of their federal and state revenue (roughly speaking), some districts were grandfathered at a higher rate decades ago. That's where the inequity begins. In Seattle, for example, the levy limit is 32 percent.

Then there's the question of differing tax bases.

Property-rich districts such as Seattle have many commercial property owners to help shoulder the load. As a result, Seattle voters pay about a little over a dollar per $1,000 of property valuation for the schools' operations levy, while in Pasco, it's $4.55 per $1,000.

The bill before lawmakers would lift what's called the levy "lid" by 4 percentage points. It also would increase levy equalization by about $32 million and make other adjustments to how much levy money districts can collect.

Another outspoken opponent of the bill is Marysville Superintendent Larry Nyland. His district doesn't qualify for much money under levy equalization, and he's skeptical that voters, after just passing an operations levy, would be willing to raise their taxes even more.

In his accounting, the gap between the richest and poorest districts in the state is as much as $1,000 per student. And since the poorest districts are often ones in which students have struggled, he says they're asked to do some of the toughest work in education with the least money — and then end up being criticized for low performance.

"I remain hopeful that social justice would prevail," he said. "That we would, at the very least not make the inequity worse."

Some of the bill's sponsors agree the measure's not ideal. They acknowledge that it seeks to increase local support for schools just a few weeks after a King County Superior Court judge said the state needs to increase its support of public schools, and make them less reliant on local funds.

But, given the economy, it doesn't look like the Legislature is going to do that and almost certainly will cut the state's education budget.

And the lawmakers behind the levy bill argue it's one of the only ways to help districts in this tough economy. "It's the tool we have today, flawed as it is," said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina. The poorer districts would have $32 million they wouldn't have otherwise, he said.

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