School districts facing levy-lid crisis; Legislature considers one-year extension

By Grace Swanson/WNPA Olympia News Bureau

With a 4 percent decrease in next year’s levy lid, Courtney Schrieve, North Thurston Public Schools executive director of public relations, says her district could lose $10 million, which could fund 105 teachers.

Maximum levy percentages are scheduled to drop from 28 percent to 24 percent in the beginning of the 2017 school year this Fall unless the Legislature extends the limit or approves a budget with supportive funding.

According to data from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), Kent School District could lose approximately $20 million while Yelm Community Schools could lose $2.2 million in 2018 without the levy limit extension.

Schrieve says North Thurston Public Schools wants the Legislature to focus on funding basic education, but also views the “levy freeze” as a necessary measure.

“It’s kind of a Band-Aid for now,” she said of the levy lid freeze.

The future of the state’s school tax levy lid remains uncertain after much debate in the Legislature last week.

Minority Senate Democrats on Friday and again on Saturday (Jan. 26 and 27) tried and failed to bring Senate Bill 5023 to the floor without a committee hearing. The bill would freeze the current levy lid at 28 percent until 2019 and thus assure local school districts of necessary funding resources until a new funding plan is adopted within the state budget.

Senate Republicans approved an education budget, SSB 5607, following floor debate Feb. 1 that would defer lowering the levy lid to 24 percent until the 2018 school year and would eliminate voter-approved special levies in 2019. The lid would drop to 10 percent by 2020. The budget passed with 25 in support and 24 opposed. The bill now faces House consideration starting with a hearing Monday, Feb. 6 in the Appropriations Committee.

Democrats seek to address the “levy cliff” issue now, instead of waiting for final budget approval.

The House of Representatives on Jan. 23 passed House Bill 1059, which would delay revisions to the levy lid until 2019. To become law, the bill still requires approval by the Senate and the governor.

Matter of major importance

Shannon McCann, Federal Way Education Association president, said she hoped the Legislature would place more emphasis this session on solving the basic education funding issue.

“I understand the relief that it brings to districts to know the so-called “levy cliff’ is pushed back and that helps inform planning,” McCann said. So-called “levy cliffs” occur when local levy rates are lowered by the state without providing new revenue resources and school districts are unable to raise the funds to meet basic education levels.

“But at the same time, the students and the families and the educators of our state know the real work that needs to be done immediately is finding a tangible solution,” added McCann, a former special-education teacher.

In the Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary decision, the state must come up with a budget this session to fully fund basic education. The court ordered the state to propose a plan to fund basic education by 2018.

Through past decades, Local school districts have made up the difference between what the state has funded for education and the revenue necessary to meet the “basic education” standard. Districts have done this by asking their voters to approve special property tax levies. According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, voters historically have overwhelmingly supported to tax increases for education.

Federal Way School Public Schools have been broadly affected by state underfunding, McCann said. The state funds 70 percent of basic education staffing costs; the remaining $37 million must be raised through local levies. The state provides, for example, only enough funding for 3.5 nurses for approximately 23,000 students in that district.

Larry Delaney, a math teacher from Lakewood High School and president of the Lakewood Education Association south of Tacoma, said the “levy cliff” would hit rural schools hardest. Smaller districts don’t have the resources to create two or three budgets that would be based on varying levels of state funding and local levies, he noted. He said it’s imperative to extend the current levy rates.

Lakewood School District would raise $1.4 million less in levy funding with a four percent levy lid decrease.

Delaney is reminded about the basic education-funding problem every morning he teaches math.

More than 40 students may enroll in one of his advanced math classes, while math classes with “at risk-students” are limited to 20 students. “At risk students” have failed many of their math classes. The district maintains advanced students are “more resilient” in larger class sizes than students who struggle with math, he said. With increased state funding, the district would be able to hire more teachers and wouldn’t need to decide which students can succeed in large classes.

Voter-approved levies, which apply to property taxes, fund a school district’s education expenditures for two to three years.

HB 1059 would delay the “levy cliff” by one year — through 2018. Current law allows districts to fund 28 percent of their budgets through levy funding, but the levy rate would drop to 24 percent at the start of the 2017 school year.

If levy rates were reduced to 24 percent, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) estimates that school districts would raise $470 million less in 2018 than in 2017. Nathan Olson, OSPI communications director, says the agency supports HB 1059 because the Legislature’s work toward a basic education funding solution would assure uninterrupted school district funding.

Some House Republicans opposed the measure during a floor debate on Jan. 23, arguing it would delay the Legislature’s progress toward fulfilling the Supreme Court’s order to fully fund basic education.

“I think it’s conceding defeat that we’re not going to be able to fix this in 105 days, and so it’s the punt of all punts,” said Rep. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, in an interview. MacEwen said he would have voted to keep the current levy rates if the Legislature didn’t reach a clear solution close to the scheduled end of the session on April 23.

Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, said HB 1059 is an answer to a problem that is separate from the basic education issue. During the floor debate, she argued that the Legislature’s 2018 funding deadline doesn’t align with the timeline school districts have for developing their budgets.

House Democrats also said reduced district budgets would mean the loss of more teachers, which could exacerbate the teacher shortage problem.

“When we’re facing huge teacher shortages we can’t afford to lose some of our very best young teachers,” said Rep. Laurie Dolan, D-Olympia.

SHB 1059 passed the House chamber with 62 in support, 35 opposed, and 1 excused. The Senate Ways and Means committee considered the bill in a public hearing Jan. 30.

(This story is part of a series of news reports from the Washington State Legislature provided through a reporting internship sponsored by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. Reach reporter Grace Swanson at grace.swanson47@gmail.com)