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Three Whatcom County school superintendents say additional education funding passed by the state Legislature will provide some relief, but the state still lacks adequate funding for public schools.
During its short session, the Washington State Legislature approved an additional $333 million in education operating funds and $306 million in capital funding for school construction. The budget must be approved by Gov. Jay Inslee, and it will be several weeks before districts know exactly how much additional funding they will ultimately receive.
Meridian School District Superintendent James Everett, Bellingham Public Schools Superintendent Greg Baker, and Nooksack Valley School District Superintendent Matt Galley said the state remains unfunded for many critical school costs despite the additional investment. He said the amount remains unpaid.
“Every year it’s a roller coaster of waiting for Congress to release next year’s budget, but it’s never enough,” Baker said.
This year’s operating budget increases include $71.8 million to expand staffing of paraeducators, administrative support, and non-instructional assistants, and a $21 per student increase in materials, supplies, and operating costs. This includes $43.6 million for
Mr. Everett and Mr. Galley said that while they welcomed the increase in material costs, they still did not keep pace with inflation.
“Inflation has risen so sharply over the past two years that it would have been better to receive $400 per student for substantive support,” Everett said. “What we received was $21 per student. So that’s far from what’s needed.”
Funding for special education has improved a bit. Lawmakers raised the funding cap on enrollment from 15% to 16%. Galley said this will help because Nooksack Valley has about 17.5 percent of students in special education.
“A further increase in the percentage would provide more funding and reduce the use of discretionary levies for some of the special needs of children that are above funding levels,” Mr Galley said.
It also allocates $45 million for the state’s free school lunch program and $77.5 million for school transportation.
Increase in capital budget
The capital budget increases the School Construction Assistance Program from $271.61 per square foot to $375 per square foot, which should benefit local schools. The program allocates per-square-foot funding to districts for specific capital projects, totaling approximately $79 million. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s still not enough, Everett says.
“The challenge is that the actual construction currently costs about $700 per square foot,” he says. “Even though the price has increased by more than $100, it is still about half of what the current market is demanding for construction.”
The capital budget also allocates $114 million for the Small District and Tribal Contact Modernization Program, $45 million to improve HVAC systems, and $68 million to fund skills centers and technical education facilities. .
National funds are still not enough
Everett said he admires the “outstanding legislators” in the 42nd and 40th districts. But despite the surge, schools are still not receiving the funding they need, he said, which is why they rely so heavily on levies to function.
Although he appreciates the additional funding, Galley remains concerned about the Legislature’s reluctance to close the budget gap and the resulting focus on local tax dollars to fund schools. He said there was.
In districts with a rural tax base like Nooksack Valley, “the burden is on the taxpayers. Tax rates will be higher to generate less money,” Galley said. The Nooksack Valley levy just barely passed this year.
Baker described his “glass half-full” view of the session. Although he was happy that additional funding was being allocated to education, he said the session as a whole was “frustrating”.
Last year, Inslee signed into law a 3.7% pay raise for K-12 teachers. But Baker said the council hasn’t fully funded the increases, which means they’ll likely be funded by the district’s local taxes, which only increase by a small amount annually.
This is on top of ongoing challenges with the state’s funding model. Baker said Bellingham’s regionalization factor will drop again next year from 7.5% to 6%. “They are extorting money from us and at the same time [staff] Rewards will also increase. ”
[Read more: Regionalization is another headache in school funding]
Baker expressed gratitude to lawmakers who “worked hard to get increases,” especially when there were competing interests other than education.
“Thank you, and we have to do better. We have better models that are more predictable and more reliably pay for what communities expect from education.” We need to find out,” he said.
Charlotte Alden is a general assignment/corporate reporter at CDN. Please contact charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com. 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
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