Massive education cuts possible as state Senate ponders bill, school districts wait

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 31, 2017

As Vashon’s school board works to finalize a proposal for a $10 million bond, state legislators are deciding on a bill that, if not passed, could cause more than $400,000 to be cut from the district’s 2018 budget.

That loss of money is just a small part of what could potentially be the largest cut to basic education in state history — a total of $400 million statewide.

Meanwhile, at Thursday’s Vashon Island School District (VISD) board meeting, board members continued to narrow the options for the bond, focusing on Vashon High School’s track and field. But the meeting started with a discussion about the “levy cliff,” a term that refers to this de-funding of education if legislators do not approve a bill making its way through the state Senate.

House Bill 1059 was brought to the state Senate for a public hearing Monday after passing in the House 62-35 on Jan. 23. Both local representatives, Rep. Eileen Cody (D-West Seattle) and Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-West Seattle) voted ‘yes.’ The bill delays the return to lower limits on tax revenue school districts are allowed to collect from local levies. For the past seven years, school districts throughout the state have been allowed to collect up to 28 percent of their levy base through local property taxes. The levy base is the amount of state and federal funding a district receives. This 28 percent cap on tax collection is a 4 percent increase from years prior to 2010 and was enacted by the Legislature at the height of the recession to help districts cope with the lack of state funding and prevent lay-offs.

“That helped against state budget reductions,” VISD Superintendent Michael Soltman said.

But the legislature set an expiration on the levy cap increase for 2018 with the thought that the state would be fully funding education by then as mandated by the 2012 McCleary decision. Both Democratic and Republican senators, as well as Governor Jay Inslee, have released education funding plans calling for the addition of as much as 5 billion in tax dollars to fund the state’s public schools. However, the plans are far from final and a 2017-2019 state budget will not be passed until later this year. Without the billions called for in these proposed budgets, the 4 percent reduction in levy collection would cause drastic cuts. According to information provided by the Washington House Democrats, schools state-wide could lose $400 million, and Vashon could see a loss of more than $420,000. Larger districts, such as Seattle, could lose up to $20 million.

“It’s a big deal,” Soltman said. “The loss of levy funding could lead to drastic lay-offs.”

But both Soltman and members of Vashon’s school board are hopeful that the Senate won’t cut that much education funding, and Soltman said he does not want to create fear around the subject.

“I don’t think they would reduce levies that much,” he said.

Board member Zabette Macomber agreed and said that school officials on Vashon are hoping for the best.

“Can we not completely screw ourselves? We are all assuming they (senators) will be big boys and girls and pass this,” she said.

But the issue is a partisan one. Washington’s House is controlled by Democrats who believe the bill’s passage is necessary to continue providing funding until a budget that fully funds education is passed. Meanwhile, the Senate, until recently, has been controlled by Republicans. The Senate is at a 24-24 partisan split since the departure of Sen. Brian Dansel (R-Republic) who left last month to take a job for the Trump administration. On that side of the aisle, senators are tired of the lack of action surrounding the McCleary decision. According to The Seattle Times, they argue that postponing the levy cliff is an admission that lawmakers won’t settle on an overall education funding plan this year. They also believe that the education funding crisis should be solved through a budget plan, such as the one Republican senators presented Friday, not the levy cliff extension bill.

But Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-Maury Island) said Monday that solving the funding issue with a budget will take too long, as school districts are beginning their budget processes and need to know whether to plan for the cuts. She called the bill “an insurance policy” for the state’s schools.

“We want to make sure our counterparts in the Republican party understand we need to do it now to give school districts assurance,” she said. “We need get the levy cliff bill done so the schools have certainty now.”

Many large districts, such as Seattle, are creating two budgets to account for both possibilities: the passage or defeat of HB 1059.

She said she is also worried that the bill may become “a hostage,” meaning that either party could use it as ammunition to get their budget passed.

“(They can) say, ‘If you don’t pass my budget, your schools will lose funding,’” she said. “We need to take the hostage off so there isn’t a force mechanism.”

She said Senate Republicans have only committed to giving the bill a hearing, but have confirmed nothing further.

House Democrats last year passed the bill and attempted three times to bring it to the Senate for a vote, but were rejected each time. An attempt last Friday to receive a Senate vote while it sits in a temporary partisan tie was also unsuccessful.

Monday’s public hearing saw dozens of parents and teachers making a case for the bill for more than three hours. Many spoke about the potential ramifications of not passing the bill, including layoffs of paraeducators, assistants and teachers that could lead to increased class sizes. Others, such as superintendents and those from the Washington State School Directors’ Association, spoke about the importance of the timing of this bill as it falls when budgets are being created and notice of staff reductions need to be finalized.

For Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) Executive Director Bill Keim, a decision can’t happen soon enough.

“Even now would be better than the end of the session in July,” he said. “If this is not approved, it would cause layoffs in a teacher shortage, which is crazy.”