Governor Releases Education Budget, Asks for $3.9B in New K-12 Funding

Kicking off the 2017 budget proposals to resolve the “McCleary problem,” Governor Jay Inslee released his education and revenue budgets today, with a request for $3.9 billion in total spending over the two-year budget cycle. In a Monday preview, staff indicated that nearly two-thirds of the funding would boost compensation for all educators and add professional development for teachers and para-educators. 

At the top of the list is shifting the burden for compensation from local levies to the state. Inslee borrowed a page from the Technical Compensation Work Group that completed its recommendations in June 2012. The budget proposals start with increased salaries for beginning teachers, increasing the starting salary from $35,700 to $44,976 in FY18, and $54,587 in FY19. The salary bump would include 30 hours of professional development in the first year, and 80 hours of professional development in year two.

 

Also in the mix are:

•       Teacher and principal mentoring and alternative routes for teacher preparation.

•       Funding to close the opportunity gap, including investments in K-3 class size reduction; adding 1.0 FTE per prototypical school to support the addition of school counselors and nurses, social workers, psychologists, and family engagement coordinators; a $50 million increase to the Learning Assistance Program; truancy reduction; funding to support educational outcomes for students in foster care; and mentoring for struggling students.

•       Career-connected learning; $12.3 million for CTE MSOC; and additional funding for the highly capable students program. 

 

The revenue side of the equation

To fund his education budget, Governor Inslee is proposing a tax on professional services, instituting a capital gains tax on high-income gains that is estimated to affect about 30,000 individuals, and a carbon tax. Inslee rejected an increase in property tax, or a property tax “swap” that has been suggested by others. In fact, according to staff, under the proposed levy and local effort assistance reform plan, taxpayers in more than 100 school districts where the levy rate is above 24 percent would see their property taxes reduced.

 

Take it to the levy

With the significant infusion of state funding for basic education, Governor Inslee has proposed holding local levies for 2018 at current law plans, which would mean allowing the levy lid to roll back to 24 percent, maintain grandfathered districts at their rollback level, and eliminate ghost money in the levy base. In 2019, the proposal would decrease all school district levies to 15 percent, would eliminate grandfathering and would not include ghost money in the base. The annual per pupil inflator would be dramatically increased, to 16.35 in FY18, and 21.4 PPI in FY19, ostensibly to avoid significant impact and the levy cliff. 

Compensation phase-in

The education budget proposal would phase in the increases in compensation, based on the following chart:

In addition, the Salary Allocation Model (SAM) would be collapsed. The result would be:

•       Beginning educator: $54,587 with Bachelor’s degree; $58,954 with advanced degree       

•       2^nd tier certification: $65,504 with Bachelor’s degree; $70,745 with advanced degree

•       2^nd tier certification and 10 years of experience: $78,605 with Bachelor’s degree; $84,883 with advanced degree

For professional development, the Governor’s budget proposes 30 hours for FY18, and 80 hours for FY19, which are included within the salary amounts in the chart and SAM above. Professional development would be 50/50 self-directed and district-directed. On the self-directed, the training would need to focus on social and emotional learning, cultural competency, and closing the opportunity gap. The district-directed training would not be legislated, but the proposed two-year spending plan would eliminate about $5 million currently appropriated for teacher and principal evaluation training, so any TPEP-related training would come from the district-directed professional development. 

 

SPI-elect weighs in

In response to the Governor’s spending request, Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Chris Reykdal, who joined Inslee for the announcement, said, “This is an outstanding budget for public education. It’s great for our kids, and is a solid plan forward. I’m excited to partner with Governor Inslee and the Legislature to fully, amply and equitably fund education.”

Links to budget information:

Budget highlights

Education highlights

Governor’s budget press conference

Marie Sullivan

WSPTA Legislative Consultant

LegConsultant@wastatepta.org

Supreme Court Hears Arguments to Lift State Sanctions, Threaten More Sanctions

The Washington State Supreme Court heard arguments today from attorneys representing the State and the McCleary plaintiffs to assess whether the State is on track to amply fund basic education for the more than one million students attending public schools, and whether a fine imposed in August 2015 should be lifted.

Following the briefs already submitted to the Court, attorney Alan Copsey for the State argued that billions of dollars had already been spent to comply, the Legislature had met every deadline, and the final piece of funding for compensation would come sometime during the 2017 regular or special session. Under questioning, Copsey said the current $100,000-a-day sanction had made a difference in executive and legislative action, and that Senate Bill 6195, which created a joint legislative task force, will result in a path forward for the 2017 legislature to follow. He also said specifically that the State was not asking the Court to rescind its jurisdiction over the case, but to lift the sanction because the Legislature will take action next year.

Copsey also said that what was different this time than with previous groups and reports was that the Legislature was getting the specific information it needed – the “missing information” on compensation – to put together the solution. He stated that the Legislature recognized it needed to solve the problem with its reliance on local levies and suggested that one option was to lower the levy limit locally and increase the state portion – the so-called “levy swap.” In response to a question from Justice Stephens, the author of the 2012 decision and a former Orchard Prairie school director, Copsey said lifting the levy lid would be only a temporary solution if the Legislature didn’t reach a decision by the end of the regular session, and that the burden for basic education funding was clearly on the State. Finally, Copsey said the “ample funding” date milestone should be the start of the 2018-19 school year, not January 2018 or fiscal year 2018.

Arguing for plaintiffs, Thomas Ahearne used a merry-go-round analogy several times to illustrate the circular nature of the State’s response and the lack of a plan, phased in over the years, to show how it was going to reach full funding. Ahearne lambasted the levy swap proposal as bringing no new revenue into a system that the Court has already said is underfunded, and said the State was ignoring the fact that activities such as transportation and MSOC – while meaningful progress had been made – are still not at the levels of funding of “actual cost.” Ahearne also said that the State should pick up the tab on school construction that is specifically tied to basic education programs such as full-day kindergarten and smaller K-3 class sizes. (In rebuttal, Copsey said school construction has never been part of basic education but the Legislature had appropriated billions for school construction over the years).

Unlike Copsey, Ahearne said he didn’t think the sanctions had made a difference, pointing to the fact that the Legislature hadn’t even set the penalty money aside in a separate account. He urged the justices to give the legislature a clear choice that if lawmakers failed to take significant action in 2017 that something else would happen. Frequently, Ahearne used language from the Court’s own decision and orders to remind them of what the State should be doing, and firmly rejected the idea that SB 6195 met the Court’s standard of a plan.

In his closing, Ahearne said the clock had run out on the McCleary children but it wasn’t too late for the Court to threaten serious action in the form of invalidating public schools statutes or tax breaks. It was time to get off the merry-go-round and actually go somewhere.

Budget Deal Struck, Legislature Returns to Work

The state Senate returned to Olympia Monday afternoon, starting with overrides on 27 Senate bills vetoed by Governor Jay Inslee March 10^th.  Inslee issued the vetoes as a way to encourage legislators to get supplemental budgets completed, and has indicated that with an agreed-upon operating budget, he would not object to either chamber overriding the vetoes. 

The Senate bills now move to the House for its consideration of override votes. Bills that receive the two-thirds override in both chambers will not  go back to the Governor, but go to the Secretary of State’s office to be assigned a chapter law number.

House members also returned Monday afternoon to get a briefing on the proposed compromise supplemental operating budget.  A number of bills have been pulled to the floor, including the budget bills.  Look for HB 2380 (capital budget) and ESHB 2376 (operating budget) to move first in the House. House members begin work Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. The House is expected to go to caucus after it convenes, but should vote on the budget bills today and send them to the Senate for action.

Also of interest to WSPTA members is the newly introduced HB 3009 (on March 24^th) which would allow time spent eating a morning meal in the classroom to count as instructional time if instruction is also taking place. This bill replaces the “Breakfast after the Bell” bill, which failed to pass by the end of regular session. No funding is included in the compromise operating budget for one-time start-up grants at schools that adopt a morning meal program after the school day starts. 

The compromise operating budget also includes funding for beginning teachers, students who are homeless, students in the foster youth system, and to implement aspects of the education opportunity gap bill - all of which passed during the regular session. The bill also includes about a net of $4 million for charter schools (SB 6194), which has not been scheduled for a Governor bill signing yet. 

Legislation to extend an increase in school district levy authority from 2018 to 2019 will not be proposed during the special session. The compromise operating budget includes Section 515 which states the legislature's intent to adopt compensation and levy reform measures by April 1, 2017, or to introduce legislation to extend the authority another year if action by the end of session seems unlikely. 

If all goes according to House and Senate leadership plans, work should conclude by the end of Tuesday, the 20th day of the first special session. 

Marie Sullivan
Legislative Consultant
LegConsultant@wastatepta.org