Rick Schulte: New state funding plan is inadequate and still inequitable
• Editor’s note: On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the Legislature has complied with the court order to amply fund K-12 education.
Now that school officials have had time to see the details of the plan, concerns are being raised throughout the state. The following is by Richland School Superintendent Rick Schulte, who explains how the last-ditch legislative solution falls short in his district.
On June 30, five years after the state Supreme Court required full funding of the actual cost of basic education, the state Legislature passed Engrossed House Bill 2242.
The bill was written in private sessions by a small, bipartisan group of legislators. The full Legislature had only hours to read and vote on the bill.
There were no public hearings, and no opportunity to inform our elected officials how the provisions of the bill would affect local schools.
The public needs to know about some important changes.
State lawmakers increased the state property tax rate by 81 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value starting in 2018. They also increased some payments to local districts, decreased local levy authority and transferred control from local citizens to Olympia.
What is alarming is that new state revenue doesn’t balance the loss of local levy dollars and unfunded costs.
The result is an estimated $9 million shortfall for Richland schools in the 2018-19 school year.
Richland’s local levy rate is capped at no more than $1.50, less than half our 2018 rate of $3.42.
The result is Richland will collect no more than $1,500 per student, a loss of over $13 million annually. By contrast, property-rich school districts elsewhere in the state are allowed to collect up to $2,500 per student, undermining equity among districts.
Moreover, local levy expenses will require approval from Olympia, and certain levy expenses are prohibited. For example, expenses excluded from local levies include previously funded items such as basic and special education (really!), student transportation, technology, maintenance and certain staff salaries.
A main goal of this new legislation is to fully fund the actual cost of staff compensation. For teachers, the state will provide districts the average salary across the state, and establish a minimum beginning teacher salary.
But this one-size-fits-all approach does not account for districts like Richland with a more experienced teaching staff. As a result, our actual average teacher salary is well above state average.
Other districts with younger, less experienced teaching staff have lower average salaries. However, all districts will receive the same teacher salary, and districts are not allowed to use local levies to make up the difference.
The state formula rewards districts with less experienced staff and penalizes districts with more experienced staff.
Some districts also will get a “regionalization” increase to staff salaries of up to 24 percent, based on local housing costs. Richland qualifies for an additional 6 percent regardless of where teachers live.
Neighboring districts don’t qualify even if some of their teachers live in Richland. Moreover, this added 6 percent is phased out over several years in spite of the fact that home mortgages are typically 30-year commitments.
Districts qualifying for the 24 percent bonus are often the same ones that can raise more levy revenue. Those districts will have an advantage recruiting staff.
Local control and community support allow districts to address local problems, needs and opportunities.
Substituting state control by Olympia will create winners and losers. Excluding our local legislators from closed-door decisions disenfranchises local voters.
Students, teachers, and schools are the ones who will suffer.
This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Rick Schulte: New state funding plan is inadequate and still inequitable."