Tell lawmakers ways to improve and fund public schools

OLYMPIA – Think you know the best means for the state to pay for public schools?

Then mark Oct. 6 on your calendar.

That’s when a panel of state lawmakers will be in Everett to hear from parents, teachers, and taxpayers on how the state can meet its constitutional mandate to fully fund education without relying on local property tax levies.

Members of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee will host the two-hour forum in the Everett School District offices at 3900 Broadway. Everett will be the second stop on a seven-city tour that will begin Sept. 30 in Vancouver and end Oct. 27 in Yakima.

The purpose is to get out information on proposals under consideration in the Legislature, said Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, who’s been helping arrange the listening tour.

“These will help educate us too and get better feedback from the community,” he said. “We want to make sure we have the opportunity to listen.”

Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, the committee’s ranking minority member, said she wants to hear “how families feel about their public schools and what they think the needs are for their school, I want to hear how they feel about the commitment of the the Legislature to comply with the McCleary lawsuit.”

The Supreme Court, in the McCleary case, ordered the state to cover the cost of a basic education for public school students by the 2017-18 school year. On Aug. 13, justices started fining the state $100,000 a day until they get a plan from lawmakers showing how that deadline will be met.

Lawmakers did increase state spending on schools by $1.3 billion in the current budget. Those dollars are paying for materials, supplies and operating expenses. A portion also pays for offering all-day kindergarten at more schools statewide and reducing the size of classes in kindergarten through third grade.

Lawmakers must still find a way to reduce school districts’ reliance on local property tax levies that largely go to pay teacher salaries.

Absorbing the tab for compensation could as $3.5 billion in a budget cycle, legislators say. There are proposals to raise the revenue with a new capital gains tax.

Another idea is to swap state property tax dollars for local levy dollars. That would require boosting the statewide property tax while reducing local levies, a complicated swap that will mean some — but not all — property owners could wind up facing higher taxes.

McAuliffe said she’s not interested in hearing residents’ views on complex proposals in the forum.

Rather, she wants to know what they think is lacking in the classrooms and at schools. She also wants suggestions on how the state can pay to implement the voter-approved class size reduction measure, Initiative 1351. Lawmakers suspended the initiative earlier this year when they could not find a way to cover the measure’s $1 billion-a-year cost.

Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, a member of the House Education Committee, said he would like to hear how the public feels about the levy swap and capital gains ideas because that’s what lawmakers are wrestling with right now.

They will need a solution to the levy and teacher salary problems to end the fines, he said.

Senate Republicans came up with the idea of a listening tour and are inviting House members to take part. It is similar in approach to the transportation listening tour conducted by senators in 2013.

After stops in Vancouver and Everett, forums are set for Oct. 8 in Bremerton, Oct. 19 in Renton, Oct. 21 in Spokane, Oct. 26 in Wenatchee and Oct. 27 in Yakima.

All meetings are scheduled to run from 5-7 p.m.

Each will begin a short presentation on school funding challenges facing the state. Representatives of school districts, school boards, teacher unions and parent organizations will be invited offer their views on how best to reduce the reliance on local property tax levies to operate schools.

A chunk of the second hour will be set aside for public comment.

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.