The upcoming session of the Washington Legislature offers mostly peril for Clark County’s public schools, but also a shred of promise.
So said a panel of Southwest Washington legislators, joined by three first-time candidates, facing a room of apprehensive educators Friday at Educational Service District 112 headquarters in Vancouver.
“There has to be a degree of hope out there … so teachers and staff continue to fight the good fight,” said Jerry Lewis, White Salmon Valley School District superintendent — more a plea than a question for the panelists.
Tough chore, given the state’s swelling budget deficit and every indication that further school funding reductions will come when lawmakers convene in Olympia in January.
But incumbent and wanna-be legislators tried to present the glass as half full, most taking the chance of the two-hour discussion to pound home a pet governing philosophy or policy reform.
A few key threads
• The preservation of levy equalization dollars.
All seven panelists vowed to protect state-funded equalization dollars meant to close gaps between property-tax-rich and tax-poor districts.
Clark County districts are on the tax-poor side, to the tune of $31 million in equalization dollars allocated for the current school year. Equalization funds supply as much as 6 percent of districts’ operating budget.
The state levy assistance has been on Olympia’s chopping block the past two years, only to see non-Puget Sound legislators rally critical support to keep it alive. As the biggest-dollar item on the K-12 spending list not required by the state constitution, equalization funds are once again in the cross-hairs.
Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, said he and other Republicans helped shoot down a Democratic-led push to gut the funds in 2009. It was a time when the alleged “party of ‘No’” helped save local schools’ bacon, he said.
“It’s not going to be solved by one party, or by two parties, but by all parties,” Orcutt said. He pledged to dig in against gutting the payments while seeking a more stable funding base.
“If we cut levy equalization, we will grow the hotbeds of have-nots in our (communities),” said Monica Stonier, an east Vancouver Democrat and Pacific Middle School teacher running for a 17th District House seat.
State Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, touted his plan to route all school property taxes through Olympia for equal distribution, placing the burden on the state to provide all “basic education” needs. Local levies would then be used only to fund extras, not essentials, going forward.
• The position of “basic education” funding in the state spending list — the state’s “paramount constitutional duty” according to a court order that is being appealed.
Does school spending get first priority?
In a word, “No.”
Not yet, anyway.
“If you’re not focusing on creating private sector jobs, you’re not focusing on the root problem,” said Rep. Tim Probst, D-Vancouver, who sits on the House education and school funding committees. The economy is priority Nos. 1, 2 and 3, he said.
Panelists agreed: There won’t be sufficient funds for schools or other programs until more residents are back to work and state coffers are rebuilt, they said.
When GOP incumbents Orcutt and Zarelli pressed for selective cost-trimming in social services and other spending, Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, sharply disagreed.
“I’m not willing to throw Grandma and Grandpa under the bus if the (school lawsuit) wins,” Moeller said. “There are issues of poverty, issues of need. Those are our values.”
Moeller blasted a voter initiative to restore a legislative supermajority rule (Initiative 1053) for tax hikes and argued instead for overhaul of “the most regressive tax system in the country.”
• The likelihood of useful reform during the Olympia budget storm.
It is definitely possible, several participants said.
Zarelli advocated for his revised property tax plan; Orcutt wants to weed out burdensome education oversight rules. Orcutt also praised proposed House Bill 1657, which would require K-12 school funding to be settled before the Legislature tackles other operating budget needs each budget cycle.
Legislators also would be forced to re-order spending priorities in a big way should voters approve the I-1053 supermajority requirement, Orcutt predicted.
“It’s a huge opportunity” for structural changes, Probst said during a break. “Things that weren’t possible during boom times are possible during crisis.”
Probst and Orcutt joined Dennis Kampe, director of the collaborative Clark County Skills Center and Democratic candidate for a 17th District House seat, in lauding schools’ good work.
It’s a point often lost due to “poor marketing” in the community, Kampe said.
Probst said educators must “never let an opportunity go by to say, ‘The whole economy depends on our education system.’” He said school districts must brace for “shared sacrifice” during the deepest economic funk in 70 years, but also cannot shrink from a fight for fair treatment in Olympia.
“If we need to bring busloads up from Vancouver, we need to be ready to do that,” Probst said.
Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
