OLYMPIA — Public schools face layoffs, large classes and low morale if lawmakers hack funding from voter-approved education initiatives next year to balance the state budget.
Legislators know they will inflict pain on every school district in the state if they suspend funding for higher teacher salaries and smaller classes as demanded by voters.
Not funding the measures could erase up to $1.3 billion of a $6 billion deficit projected in the next state budget.
Anything less than a total gutting could force lawmakers into a choice between pay raises for some teachers and pink slips for others.
“We know it’s going to be a very, very, very, extremely difficult budget,” said state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, chairwoman of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.
Those in education from preschool to college should prepare to “share the burden” when legislators get working on eliminating the unprecedented shortfall, she said.
Budget talks are gaining steam regarding one of the biggest targets: the money poured into kindergarten through 12th grades, which now consume roughly 40 percent of the state’s general fund.
This would amount to $15.1 billion in the 2009-11 budget, assuming no current programs are cut or new ones added.
The sum includes $355.2 million for a cost-of-living increase under Initiative 732 and $910.9 million primarily for salaries of teachers and staff to maintain smaller classes outlined by Initiative 728.
In Snohomish County, funding under Initiative 728 amounts to $47.4 million this school year.
Voters overwhelmingly passed the two initiatives in November 2000.
Initiative 732 sets out a formula for annual of cost of living increases. Initiative 728 aims to improve student achievement through less crowded classrooms. It is written loosely enough that districts use the money for teachers and support services such as librarians.
Neither measure specifies where the state comes up with the money to carry them out. This has left lawmakers to decide when to pay and how much money to apply toward each.
For the next budget, all teachers are scheduled to receive a 4.1 percent pay increase under Initiative 732, and jobs of 4,000 teachers are tied to Initiative 728 dollars. The cost is a combined $1.3 billion.
Lawmakers may not want to cut funding for either measure but may not be able to avoid it.
“I just think given the magnitude of the problem, legitimately virtually everything has to be on the table. They are at least in a little bit of jeopardy,” said Dan Steele, a lobbyist for the Washington State School Directors Association, which represents the state’s 295 school districts.
Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, a member of the education and the budget-writing committees, said he’d try to reduce both.
When asked what he’d do if only one could get funding, he said: “In that case, you have to do 728. It’s bodies. It’s teaching kids,” he said. “I would hope we try to do something for teachers, but it’s looking bad; really bad.”
Leaders of the state’s largest teachers union want both measures fully funded and want no part of pitting one measure against the other in budget battles.
“We just can’t afford not to continue to invest in education,” said Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association.
Washington spends less per student and on teacher salaries than most other states, she said. Class sizes are larger, too.
She noted the state suspended funding for the two initiatives in the deficit-ridden 2003-05 budget.
“We’ve already taken our cuts. Education has sustained an erosion of support over the last decade,” she said.
Leaders of WEA chapters from Snohomish County school districts voiced the message when they met with four Snohomish County legislators in Everett this week.
“What we’re trying to do is protect our voter-mandated funding,” said Kim Mead, president of Everett Education Association.
Education has been shorted in funding for too long and “we can’t take it anymore,” she said.
Mead and the local chapters are fighting equally hard for money for both measures.
But Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, said he left the meeting with the impression the pay raises carried a bit more importance for the rank-and-file.
“That’s what it sounds like. They’d take the COLA (cost of living adjustment) and lose the jobs,” he said. “That’s a possible real trade we’ll have to struggle with.”
Union leaders also asked lawmakers to consider putting a school funding measure on the ballot if they wind up axing money for raises and smaller classes.
“I think they view that as an option if the Legislature doesn’t honor the commitment that we’ve made to K-12,” said state Sen. Jean Berkey, D-Everett, who was in the meeting.
Earlier this week, Randy Dorn, the incoming superintendent of public instruction, said the Legislature will have to consider raising taxes to avert cuts in education.
School administrators are fighting for the full funding, too.
“They are both vulnerable, but I basically believe that both of them are part of basic education,” said Barbara Mertens, assistant executive director of the Washington Association of School Administrators.
The Legislature could find other places to trim such as reducing the number of unfunded mandates, she said.
For instance, high schools have to hire more math teachers because of a requirement students take math courses until they pass a state exam. For some, this could continue through their senior year.
Karst Brandsma, interim superintendent of Everett Public Schools, said Thursday, the budget conversation is making people anxious.
In his district, 55 jobs are tied to Initiative 728 funding. Layoffs might be averted through attrition, if it comes to that, he said.
“We’re looking at belt-tightening and if you look at some of the revenue figures, it could be more than a little belt-tightening,” he said.
Snohomish School District Superintendent Bill Mester said classrooms would be hit hard if cuts are severe.
“If we would lose 728 funding, the effect in this district would be devastating,” he said. “These are teachers in classrooms and the effect of that would just be horrendous.”
Reporter Eric Stevick contributed to this report.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
