Our Voice: Pasco voters should approve school levy
Ballots for the Feb. 9 special election should have hit your mailboxes by now.
We are obviously proponents of education and creating the best environments for our children to learn and grow.
So it’s no surprise that we’re putting our support behind the replacement of the Pasco School District’s maintenance and operation levy.
The existing levy approved by voters in 2014 is expiring, and renewing it only makes sense once you understand all that the levy money provides.
Levies pay for basic education programs and help bridge the gap between the money districts receive from state and federal sources and the reality of the costs of running a district on a daily basis.
Levies are not used to pay for school construction. That’s where bonds come in to play.
As with most things, voters want to know what it will cost them. In Pasco, the levy rate is estimated to be $4.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is a penny below what voters approved in 2014.
The actual rate assessed in 2015 on Pasco homeowners was $4.39.
In the old days, levies were meant to pay for enhancements like sports, music and arts. But in the current status of our state’s funding of education, levies have had to evolve and fund the basics of education.
Only 8 percent of Pasco’s levy goes to sports and activities.
Sixty-five percent of the money is directed to pay for teaching and learning, from professional development for staff to supplies. Counselors, librarians and nurses — the kind of staff resources we can all agree should be available to our students — are also partially paid for with levy dollars. Substitute teachers, special education and technology are some of the other items the levy helps fund.
In the 2014 levy, the teaching and learning portion was 59 percent of the funds. But with inflation, the new union contract following last year’s strike, a cost of living increase and other factors, that component will increase 6 percent in this levy.
The other 27 percent of the levy goes toward school security and resource officers, insurance, student transportation, portable classrooms, and districtwide support of maintenance, custodians and utilities.
The levy also needs support in order for the district to receive state levy equalization dollars. Levy equalization money is provided to try to balance out disparities in wealth among districts based on property values.
In Pasco, levy revenue accounts for 18.9 percent of the general fund. The levy funds in the 2015-16 budget are nearly $22 million. The state’s contribution for levy equalization is just over $15 million.
As just about everyone knows, Pasco’s public school system has had a staggering growth rate in the past decade, adding 300 to 650 students per year. That’s the equivalent of an elementary school population each year. Some Pasco elementary schools are now bursting at the seams with close to 900 students.
What Pasco is asking for is quite reasonable. Voters should approve the levy.
This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Our Voice: Pasco voters should approve school levy."