Education Week - May 13, 2015 - 20

Wash. State Lawmakers
Clash Over K-12 Funding
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
been in the spotlight nationally since
at least the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling in San Antonio Independent
School District v. Rodriguez. In that
case, the court held that using local
property taxes as a basis for financing
schools was not unconstitutional.
The political landscape in Washington
state is sufficiently complex
that as lawmakers there push their
own solutions and resist those from
the other party, "we have Democrats
complaining about Republicans
raising taxes," said Frank Ordway,
the chief lobbyist for the League of
Education Voters. The Seattle-base
group supports full-day kindergarten
and charter schools.
Trends and Roadblocks
Recently, states in general have
shown limited appetite for pushing
school funding burdens onto their
local districts.
From 1991 to 2011, on average,
the percentage of total spending on
public schools coming from local tax
sources dropped by 5 percentage
points, according to Jennifer Schiess,
an associate partner at Bellwether
Education Partners, a consulting firm
based in Washington, D.C.
"The general trend over the last
20 years or so has been reduced reliance
on local taxes in school funding-but
it's not a dramatic trend,"
said Ms. Schiess in an email, citing
data from the National Center for
Education Statistics.
That doesn't mean the shift is easy
in individual states. An Illinois bill
introduced during the state's previous
legislative session by Democratic
Sen. Andy Manar would have altered
the influence of property taxes by redistributing
funds from wealthy to
poor districts. But that bill has so far
failed to pass, and it faces an uncertain
future in this session.
And officials in Pennsylvania, faced
with huge funding gaps between rich
and poor districts because of property-tax
disparities, are trying to craft
a new funding system that might
dramatically affect some districts'
budgets, creating clear winners and
losers in local school financing that
could instantly divide lawmakers.
There, as in Washington state,
any tax hike to pay for Democratic
Gov. Tom Wolf's proposed spending
increase for K-12 must first pass
muster with gop lawmakers.
Basic Obligations, More Revenue
The Washington state high court's
2012 ruling in McCleary v. State of
Washington said that the state had
fallen short of providing adequate
resources for basic education. The
court specifically called on lawmakers
to meet prior commitments to
fund class-size reductions in grades
K-3, to provide full-day kindergarten,
and to increase support for
transportation needs and schools'
materials and operating costs. Lawmakers
increased basic K-12 spending
by $982 million in the state's
2013-15 budget, but it did not satisfy
the court.
The special session is set to last
30 days, although Gov. Jay Inslee, a
Democrat, can extend it. The state
uses biennial budgets. Complicating
the matter is that control of the
legislature is split, with Democrats
holding the House of Representatives
and Republicans the Senate.
Washington currently has no tax
on personal income or capital gains,
and Democrats, including Gov. Inslee,
want to change that in order to
resolve the school funding fight.
The House Democrats' budget plan,
released in March, includes a new 5
percent tax on capital gains as part
of a blueprint for increasing K-12
spending by $3.2 billion for the 201517
biennial budget. Of that amount,
$1.4 billion would be earmarked for
K-3 class-size reduction and other obligations
under McCleary. Gov. Inslee
also proposed a new capital gains tax
of 7 percent in his 2015-17 budget.
State Rep. Ross Hunter, a Democrat
and the lead budget writer in
the House, stressed in an April 30
hearing that he is more narrowly
focused on adequate funding for
basic K-12 education as called for
in the McCleary ruling, and not on
broader issues in play like setting
basic teacher salaries at the state
level.
"I view our need to comply with
the state constitution as the state
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee,
a Democrat, speaks at a
teachers' rally in Olympia
a few days before the
launch of a special
legislative session
dominated by the issue
of education funding.
Lawmakers must come up
with a plan to increase
K-12 spending in order to
satisfy a state high court
ruling.
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The general trend
over the last 20
years or so has
been reduced
reliance on local
taxes in school
funding-but it's
not a dramatic
trend."
JENNIFER SCHIESS
Bellwether Education Partners
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Education Week - May 13, 2015

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