Christie DeSimone says the path to academic excellence at Sunnyside Elementary School in Marysville runs through overcrowded classrooms, aging buildings and nine portables.
Upgrading is clearly the answer.
Paying for it is clearly the challenge.
Raising money through levies or bonds requires that 60 percent of voters approve. Levies account for about 17 percent of school district operating budgets. Bonds pay a share of school construction.
Getting approval from 60 percent of voters for levies or bonds can be a daunting task. Lake Stevens voters made it look easy earlier this month by passing a bond measure with 71 percent approval.
But, it’s not usually that way, as the Marysville School District can attest.
State law allows two attempts per year to pass a levy, and Marysville needed both shots in its past three tries. The district, which uses 117 portables, saw two bond measures fail in 2003.
In Olympia today, the state House of Representatives is set to vote on amending the state constitution to let school levies pass by a simple majority of voters, rather than the 60 percent supermajority that’s now required.
School bond elections are not part of the legislation.
“It is a big deal. It is changing the constitution. I understand that,” said DeSimone, the Sunnyside Parent Teacher Association legislative representative. She arranged for teachers, parents and student leaders to visit lawmakers in Olympia last week.
“Students cannot achieve what we want them to if we don’t have adequate schools and classrooms,” she said.
The measure, House Joint Resolution 4205, must be approved by two-thirds of the House and the Senate before going to voters. If a simple majority of voters approve the amendment, it would take effect next year.
House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, predicted passage of what he calls “landmark” legislation in the House.
But it’s not a slam dunk.
“There will be an active debate,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, who opposes the change.
He said raising taxes should not be made too easy.
Chandler said that if the need for a levy is adequately demonstrated, it will pass and the 60 percent requirement will not be burdensome.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation and Washington Chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy/Freedom Works say the supermajority requirement should not be lifted unless the votes are restricted to the general election.
“We have not taken a specific position on it,” said Jamie Daniels, director of the Washington Chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy/Freedom Works. “But if they are going to do that, we would like to see it at a general election. We think any tax increases should be decided by the largest amount of people possible.”
Though Republicans are expected to comprise most of the opposition in today’s scheduled vote, Rep. Rodney Tom, R-Eastgate, will not be one of the dissenters.
“I think it’s an unfair challenge,” he said. “If we say that education is paramount and we make it easier to put in stadiums than fund our schools, we’re sending the wrong message.”
A 1932 voter initiative spelled out how school districts could tap local property taxes with voter approval. The law became part of the state constitution in 1944, with an eye to protecting large property owners from over-taxation.
In the 1930s and ’40s, there were more than 2,000 school districts in Washington and many people didn’t even know what district they lived in, said Dan Steele, director of government relations for the Washington State School Directors Association.
Today there are 296 districts. And privately owned lands are no longer the monopoly of a few large corporations, Steele said.
“What’s wrong with going back to the voters 60 years later to see if they still want it?”
Times have changed dramatically, particularly with land ownership, over the past 60 years, said Larry Francois, superintendent of the 2,480-student Lakewood School District, which needed two attempts to pass its levy last year.
“All the Legislature would be doing is giving the authority to let the people decide,” Francois said.
School districts now turn to voters every one to four years to pass maintenance and operation levies. Last year, 274 districts in the state passed such levies; levies in three districts failed.
Bond measures that pay for construction are rarer and succeed less frequently. Part of the reason is that taxpayers are on the hook for much longer; it typically takes 15 to 20 years to pay off a bond. In 2003, only 24 of 44 districts succeeded in passing bond measures.
Democrat and Republican leaders said the Legislature may back a lower threshold for levies but will not do so for bonds.
The focus of the fight will be in the Senate. Last year, the Senate education committee rejected a simple majority bill. This year is different, so far.
On Feb. 2, the Senate Early Learning, K-12 and Higher Education Committee passed its version of the proposed constitutional amendment for a simple majority for levies. It awaits action by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Sen. Dave Schmidt, R-Bothell, who serves on the education panel, supported the measure but said he isn’t sure how many of his Republican colleagues will follow suit if the issue comes to a vote on the Senate floor.
Nor will he predict how the public will respond. “I don’t have a feel for that. I think it will be close,” he said. “I leave it up to the people as to what they want to do.”
On Thursday, DeSimone said Schmidt encouraged them to not let up in their lobbying.
“Hopefully it will make it in the Senate,” she said. “Then we will have to work to convince voters in the state how really important this is for education and the future of our state.”
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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