A hard request for schools
Published 5:10 pm Tuesday, June 1, 2010
In an effort to mitigate the cuts they made to public schools last session, state lawmakers tossed local school districts something of a life preserver: the ability to ask their voters for more money. Five districts in Snohomish County — Edmonds, Everett, Granite Falls, Marysville and Northshore — will do just that in August.
Putting a levy on the primary election ballot couldn’t have been an easy decision for school officials. They know family budgets are tight, too, and some have already had levies pass this year. The risk of pushing voters past their limits is real, even in districts where levies usually pass comfortably. A levy failure is not a precedent they want to set.
But these officials have faced an agonizing series of tough choices in recent years as state revenue has sagged. Everett, for example, cut nearly $4 million in the past year, including money for targeted help that has dramatically increased the district’s on-time graduation rate. The opportunity to regain a chunk of that money was too important to ignore.
The Legislature, which cut more than $16 million from Snohomish County school districts this past session, raised the limit districts can collect in local property taxes by 4 percentage points of their total budgets. Measures on the August ballot, which require a simple majority to pass, would cost the owner of a $300,000 home an extra $60 a year in Marysville and Northshore, $75 in Everett, $93 in Edmonds and $105 in Granite Falls (figures are approximate). Levies are for four years except in Granite Falls, which has a two-year measure.
Other districts can still consider running a supplemental levy in November or early next year.
To convince voters to say yes, district officials will have to be specific about what the extra money would be used to restore. Straightforward, compelling cases must be made. The need is there; districts must make that clear.
Most voters, we suspect, sympathize with the difficult financial position their schools are in. They want the best for their kids and their communities, and understand how budgets have been shrinking.
That hardly mean they’ll be an easy sell, though. Amid signs of a recovering economy, unemployment remains high. Families are sacrificing.
The Legislature has essentially posed this question to voters: If state funding falls for public education, are you willing to make up part of the difference?
In five local school districts, voters have until Aug. 17 to ponder it.
