Tag Archives: McCleary

Braun bill takes away excuses for school-levy ‘lift’

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun today proposed a way for lawmakers to answer school-funding concerns while protecting taxpayers against big increases in local school levies.

Senate Bill 6021, introduced with less than six full days left in this year’s 105-day session, is being offered as an alternative to two measures still in play: House Bill 2140 and Senate Bill 5313. Either would lift the bipartisan cap on local school levies and enable property-tax increases.

“There are members of the majority who realize it would be a big mistake to lift the limit on local school levies and endorse higher property taxes, but they also don’t want to go home without responding to funding concerns raised by school districts they represent. For them this new bill is a way forward that doesn’t raise taxes and would help avoid an overtime session,” said Braun, an architect of the landmark education-funding updates enacted in 2017.

He said SB 6021 would send more money to school districts on each end of the student-enrollment scale, taking away arguments in favor of what some districts and the state’s largest education union are calling “local levy flexibility.” It also would address special-education funding not found in another Senate measure pending approval by the House of Representatives.

“We knew some policy and funding adjustments would need to be made as the school-funding updates took hold – but the local levy limit didn’t take effect until just this year, so let’s leave it alone and come at these adjustments from another direction,” said Braun, R-Centralia. “This bill checks some important boxes for big urban districts, and districts with enrollments less than 1,000 students, and it also complements the special-education funding that I hope is already on its way into the final budget.”

For instance, Braun’s bill would increase the annual allocation to Seattle Public Schools by $28.3 million, including an additional $1.6 million for special education. The Tacoma School District would see another $15.5 million per year, with an additional $1.3 million designated for special education.

Braun acknowledged that his bill may also save lawmakers from going into overtime due to the lack of agreement on a new state budget.

“If it’s true that some senators see their support for a new budget going hand-in-hand with a solution to the concerns about school funding, then this approach deserves serious consideration. I know it’s late in the session to put new legislation on the table, but this is a path that would be easy to follow if enough people recognize the advantages,” said Braun.

Braun said the cost of the new funding could be covered through improvements to the state-run health-care system for K-12 employees that would maintain access to care at a lower cost to the state and to school districts. He estimates those refinements, handled in separate legislation, could mean multimillion-dollar savings for Seattle Public Schools.

The risks of undoing the local-levy limit are detailed in a July 2018 edition of Braun’s Economic Sense policy paper.

Braun calls on state’s top officials to ensure school starts on time

With the threat of teacher strikes looming in local school districts throughout the state, Sen. John Braun called on Washington’s top elected officials to fulfill their moral and legal obligation to ensure students can return to the classroom on time. On Thursday Braun sent a letter to Washington state’s governor, attorney general and superintendent of public schools requesting their assistance in discouraging teacher strikes and taking legal action to prevent them if necessary.

“Forcing children to remain out of the classroom reduces educational opportunities and creates a major burden for families,” said Braun, R-Centralia, who sponsored the 2017-19 state operating budget that made historic investments in Washington’s K-12 public schools. “Classroom time is precious and especially important as students return from a long period off. A strike would also force families to make last-second plans to keep their children safe and supervised, which for some would require taking time off of work. This is incredibly difficult for single parents and households where both parents work.”

Recent weeks have featured many reports of local teachers authorizing strikes and even the Washington Education Association training teachers for the picket line. According to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, start dates vary by school district, but the overwhelming majority begin over the next two weeks, while some are already underway.

“A dispute between adults should never harm children,” said Braun. “In addition to being illegal, a strike would be especially concerning as many districts already agreed to a contract for the upcoming school year and are only re-negotiating for additional pay. Unfortunately, we’ve already seen public comments from union officials that they would ignore the legal prohibition against public employee strikes. That is why I am asking our top officials to fulfill their duty to ensure the law is upheld.”

Since the Washington State Supreme Court ruled the state was not amply funding public education in 2011, the Legislature has committed to nearly doubling state education funding, going from $13.6 billion in the 2011-13 budget to $26.8 billion in 2019-21. As a result, Braun says Washington state will almost assuredly rank in the top five nationally in state education funding per student.

“Whether our top officials side with local union officials or the school district, they must execute the duty we all have to provide a world-class education system, which includes having children in the classroom learning.”

Under the current budget, the state will provide on average more than $72,000 for teacher salaries during the 2018-19 school year, which does not include additional pay from local levies. This also does not include pension, health care or time off benefits paid by the state.

Using unexpected revenue to reduce taxes

With state tax collections and projected revenues continuing to rise (see chart), I have proposed using up to $1 billion of unexpected tax dollars coming into the state to smooth next year’s transition to Washington’s new education-funding system.

While more than 70 percent of state taxpayers will see a net property-tax decrease once reforms are phased in, the new K-12 funding system has the entire state slated for a tax-rate increase of $0.81 per $1,000 assessed value in 2018.

Creating an equitable and long-term education funding system for our state required a great deal of compromise. Anything more than a short-term property-tax increase necessary to transition between funding systems was not my preferred method.

Ultimately, a one-year increase was necessary to reach a bipartisan agreement.

Every year our state’s chief economist issues quarterly, four-year revenue projections. My proposal would use 75 percent of the unexpected revenue growth – the amount that exceeds the June 2017 forecast – over the next four years to reduce the impacts of the $0.81 state property-tax rate increase in 2018.

The most recent quarterly forecast anticipates another $500 million coming into the state under the current tax structure (again, money beyond what was forecast in June), which would reduce the current $0.81 rate increase to less than $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

With the Legislature having already passed a budget that balances and provides property tax relief for a majority of our state over the next four years, this approach would provide us with an opportunity to amply fund state government and reduce the short-term impact on working families and people with fixed incomes.

Brief filed by the Legislature to the State Supreme Court concerning public charter schools

Click on the image above to open the file.

Sen. Braun’s E-newsletter – October 6, 2015

Washington’s Paramount Duty

A look at education funding in our state

Greetings,

For the past 30 years, starting in the early 1980s, growth in general government spending outpaced the state’s investments in public education. Billions of dollars were diverted from the state’s paramount duty toward other state programs. As the state’s portion of education funding declined, that burden shifted to school-district taxpayers and their ability to raise funds through local levies. These two issues have culminated in the McCleary decision where the state Supreme court found the state was not meeting is constitutional duty to adequately provide for K-12 education.

In just a few short years, our Senate majority has been able to change that and make education the first priority in the state’s budget. Since 2013, education spending has increased by $4.5 billion and 47 percent of spending in the most recent budget is going to our K-12 system. However, funding is only part of the challenge. We also need common sense reforms to give teachers the freedom to do their jobs well and help schools and students succeed.

Looking ahead at the upcoming legislative session, we have more work to do to make the right investments for our students and provide a more equitable solution for school funding by the 2018 deadline. As we continue to prioritize schools in our state there will be many issues to address, but funding is a major piece of the puzzle. State Sen. Andy Hill, our lead budget writer, recently put out a series of policy papers that goes in depth on education funding and reform. Please see below for links to the three-part series.

Windows into the Budget

The Paramount Duty Series

Part I: 30 Years of Shirking the Paramount Duty & Understanding the Ruling that Followed

“It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders[.]”

– Article. 9, Sec. 1 of the Washington State Constitution

Despite being ascribed preeminent importance in Washington’s Constitution, education was a decidedly declining state budget priority over the last generation as non-education spending dominated budget growth from 1983 to 2013… Click Here to Read More

Part 2: Turning the tide–state spending radically reprioritized under Majority Coalition Caucus

The Majority Coalition Caucus (MCC) took the reins of the Senate in 2013, determined to turn the tide of the previous 30 years and reprioritize education. The results are as follows… Click Here to Read More.

Part 3: What’s left? Bringing fairness to K-12 funding via levy reform,debunking the myth that new taxes are needed,and the vital importance of education policy reforms

The quality of a child’s education should not depend on their ZIP Code.That is a fundamental principle that unites all of us in the Legislature, and while we cannot ultimately control the quality of a child’s education, we in the Legislature must ensure the funding system in place is equitable, regardless of where a child lives in our state.Sadly, that is not the case at present–and it must be remedied… Click Here to Read More.

Contact Me:

Email:John.Braun@leg.wa.gov

Olympia Office:

407 Legislative Building

PO Box 40420

Olympia, WA 98504-0420

Phone:(360) 786-7638

Website: johnbraun.src.wastateleg.org

Share my E-newsletter

Do you know others who live in our district who may not be receiving my e-news updates? Please feel free to forward this e-mail to them or click on the share button below.