Levy lid lift proposal a "quack cure" for school finance

WE were bewildered to read The Seattle Times editorialize in favor of a so-called "remedy" intended to help some school districts temporarily raise more local levy revenue during these tough economic times ["A small lift for Washington's schools," May 7].

Make no mistake, lifting the levy lid is a quack cure for a school-finance system already in critical condition.

Our state Constitution declares education to be our state's paramount duty, yet the share of the state budget that goes to our public schools has steadily slipped over the past two decades to nearly 40 percent today. Local levies, intended to pay for enhancements to basic education, now account for more than half of all school-support services, such as pupil transportation, campus security and custodial services.

School districts have been forced to exhaust their levy capacities and operate on dangerously low budgetary reserves.

Along comes House Bill 1977, which cuts state support by $60 million. The losses in revenue to school districts range from a few thousand dollars to more than $1 million. For example, the Evergreen School District in Vancouver would have lost $1.5 million for the 2010 school year. Lost revenue means a severe reduction or entire elimination of important student services and hundreds of jobs.

Worse yet, this legislation adds insult and injury by shifting more of the responsibility of supporting our public schools toward local taxpayers and creating clear winners and losers out of our schools. The state has a constitutional obligation to fund education fully and equally across our state. Yet, property-rich districts and those able to pass levies gain more resources, while those at the other end of the spectrum fall further behind.

We understand how this would benefit Seattle, Spokane and other big districts, but the harm to smaller and rural school districts is simply unacceptable.

Thankfully, it appears the Legislature won't convene in a special session in the foreseeable future, so this proposal can be laid to rest. Instead, we can focus on the education funding-reform process begun by the Legislature this year.

A strong, bipartisan group of lawmakers this year helped pass House Bill 2261. The product of years of study, this measure will modernize our state's definition of basic education and commit the state to full funding of areas such as transportation and all-day kindergarten. When funded, this new system will end the reliance on local levies to pay for basic support programs.

Creating a new financial blueprint for our schools was the greatest achievement of the 2009 Legislature, but it will be meaningless if future Legislatures don't provide the necessary funding and instead continue the addiction to local levies.

The state now has a road map to a modern, fully funded school system. As our economy improves, we all need to hold our elected officials accountable for putting money behind this new vision and making it reality for our kids. Raising the levy lid would have been a massive step backward and a retreat from the reform we need.

George Dockins is the executive director of Public School Employees of Washington (PSE), the state's second-largest education association, representing 26,000 school-support workers.