State Budget House Proposal - Dorn Response

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Statement From State Superintendent Randy Dorn on Proposed 2015-17 Operating Budget (HB 1106) OLYMPIA — March 30, 2015 — The journey to fully fund basic education for our students began well over a decade ago, highlighted by the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. The first concrete step in this journey was the passage of House Bill 2776. I do not believe this should be the only step. I applaud the work done in this House budget proposal to fund HB 2776: It increases funding for materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC). It pays for lower class sizes in grades K-3. It pays for full-day kindergarten. It increases funding for the Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program. It makes selective staffing improvements in the prototypical school model. However, this budget proposal falls short of fully funding basic education in a number of key areas: It does not lower class sizes in grades 4-12, which was approved by the voters last fall. There is neither reduction in class size nor increase in MSOC for CTE students. It does not adequately fund more than 20,000 existing school employees, such as teaching assistants, custodians, and technology staff. I am also concerned that the proposal does not address the need to reduce reliance on local levies. In fact, in terms of compensation, this budget increases the reliance on levy funds. The House budget includes a long overdue cost-of-living adjustment, which I support, but the COLA is only for the personnel funded by the state. School districts will be forced to use levy money to provide similar increases to those staff funded with local funds. This is wrong. The costs of employees providing basic education are a state responsibility. Passing off this obligation to districts puts a burden on local taxpayers that is unfair and inequitable to districts, making it more difficult to close achievement gaps. This goes beyond just an educational issue to a civil rights issue. The State is currently in contempt of court because it has failed to adopt a complete plan showing year by year how it intends to fully fund basic education by 2018 without the use of levies. In no way can this budget be considered such a complete plan. Last spring the Legislature sent a message to the Supreme Court, assuring the justices that it would reach "a grand agreement" on education funding this session, and asking the Court to wait on possible sanctions. I also asked the Court to withhold sanctions in order to give the legislature time to act this session. But now we are in the fourth quarter of the session and have yet to see the plan the court is demanding. The Legislature must adopt a clear plan for full funding of basic education this session. This budget does not. STAY IN TOUCHWebsite | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr | Contact Us SUBSCRIBER SERVICESUpdate your subscriptions, modify your password or email address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences page. You will need to use your email address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please visit subscriberhelp.govdelivery.com. This email was sent to nhedman@whiteriver.wednet.edu using GovDelivery, on behalf of: Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction · 600 Washington St. S.E. · Olympia, WA 98504