— from Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction —
State Superintendent Randy Dorn filed a brief with the Supreme Court. Below is a statement on the brief.
On Monday I filed a brief in the McCleary v. Washington case. In July the state Supreme Court asked all parties in the case how much the major costs associated with basic education are funded by the state and how much by local districts.
Because my office receives spending reports from all of the state’s 295 school districts, I asked the Supreme Court if I could contribute. The Court agreed.
The last year for which we have complete data is 2014-15. Based on that year, spending on basic education staff was as follows:
| Staff type | State* | Local* | Total* |
| Instructional | $52,944 | $13,654 | $66,598 |
| Administrative | 59,954 | 54,615 | 114,569 |
| Classified | 32,334 | 12,089 | 44,423 |
* Per full-time equivalent employee
Spending on categorical programs and other basic education expenditures was as follows:
| Expenditure | State* | Local* | Total* |
| Categorical programs | |||
| Special education | $905 | $266 | $1,171 |
| Learning Assistance | 213 | 0 | 213 |
| Transitional Bilingual | 110 | 14 | 124 |
| Highly Capable | 10 | 7 | 17 |
| Other basic education expenditures | |||
| Pupil transportation | 411 | 31 | 442 |
| Career & Technical Education | 322 | 25 | 547 |
* In millions of dollars
What’s especially troubling is that, according to analysis done by my office, districts spent a total of $3 billion in 2014-15 from local levies and levy equalization. About 60 percent of that total – $1.8 billion – was needed to make up for the differences in salaries and additional staffing.
We have a grave teacher shortage in this state, and it’s not made any easier when the state doesn’t even allocate the full salary for a teacher, administrator or classified employee.
The Court asked for the information because it is considering whether to lift the $100,000-a-day fine on the Legislature. I strongly urge the Court not to do so. In fact, in June I urge the Court to increase the severity of the sanctions. The Legislature has had more than four years to fully fund basic education. But in 2014-15, they were clearly short. Legislators must understand that that money translates into children in some parts of the state not getting the education services they need and deserve.
Just as important, I also strongly urge the court to rule on this matter quickly, before election day. The two gubernatorial candidates recently held their first debate and failed to substantively discuss education funding.
As I end my eight years in office, I am becoming more discouraged by the lack of momentum I’m seeing in funding. Using a rough analogy, to this point the Court has been the “nice” parent, begging and pleading for the child to clean his room. It’s time for the Court to stop being nice and demand action. Otherwise, the room will get messier and messier.
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is the primary agency charged with overseeing K–12 education in Washington state. Led by State Superintendent Randy Dorn, OSPI works with the state’s 295 school districts and nine educational service districts to administer basic education programs and implement education reform on behalf of more than one million public school students.
OSPI provides equal access to all programs and services without discrimination based on sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability.
Questions and complaints of alleged discrimination should be directed to the Equity and Civil Rights Director at 360-725-6162 or P.O. Box 47200, Olympia, WA 98504-7200.
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The tragedy of this report from the OSPI is that the very same questions were being asked when I served on the Orcas Island School Board, THIRTY-FIVE years ago !!!!!!! Now my son sits on the same School Board and still doesn’t have a commitment from the State to fully fund basic education.
Further, the joke that is the fine of $100,000 per day imposed by the Supreme Court on the Legislature doesn’t come from the pockets of any elected representative in Olympia. It is money that is not then available for other State programs within the budget. So, one would ask, where does the $100,000 per day go?
This debacle is unacceptable and has been so since 1974 when Judge Tanner ruled that the State had to provide equal educational opportunities
to every child in Washington. In those days long past, there was also a “levy lid” that prevented more than 10% of a school district’s budget being raised through a local levy, thus increasing the pressure on Olympia to meet it mandated responsibilities.
What is the answer? The only one I have is to call Sen. Kevin Ranker, and Rep. Jeff Morris and Kris Lytton for their position on this issue. My grandchildren will have grandchildren before this issue is resolved unless real leadership is exhibited by our elected representatives. I will not vote for any of the above persons unless they give me a personal commitment to address this matter
I agree with Ed Sutton and also have a question.
Whatever happened to the Washington State Lottery being used to fund education as was promised when the lottery was approved. That’s probably one of the main reason so many people were in favor of having the lottery.
Great memory Ginny. You are correct, the lottery WAS promoted as funding education. Obviously, the legislatures did not have the discipline to husband those funds.
If I were to ignore the direct order of a judge, despite repeated warnings, I would most likely be put in jail for contempt. The knee jerk reaction is to insist on the same penalty for the legislative bodies that have failed to comply with the judges order. Unfortunately, some are working hard to resolve the issue, while some are doing everything to obstruct it. How do you decide which members of the legislative bodies are in violation of the judge’s order? Maybe hold the majority and minority leaders of the legislative bodies personally in contempt. After all, isn’t it their job the guide and govern the bodies themselves?
Clearly the current approach isn’t working. But what would be the next step? Does the judge have the legal power to develop a plan which meets the law and force the state to comply? My high school civics classes are many decades old, but I doubt it. But what we have here is a bunch of children that refuse to play nicely with each other. As a parent, what would you do? You’d take away their toys until the agreed to play nicely.
Maybe it’s time to take away their toys and send them to bed without dinner.
If the work of fully funding education doesn’t get done, then the $100,000 dollar fine should be accessed directly from All of the legislators salary . That would put pressure on any legislators that hold out. Just like any employee, if they don’t get their job done, then they don’t get payed.
I am waiting for us to hear a response from Ranker, Morris and Lytton !!!