Resolution demanding that Washington State Legislature fully fund education

Kathy Austin

RESOLUTION:

Advocating for Extending the “Levy Cliff”[1] AND Amply Funding Basic Education

Adopted by the Bryant Elementary PTSA Board of Directors on Monday, December 12.

Whereas the Washington State PTA holds in its “Top Five” for 2017-18 legislative sessions the legislative priority “Amply Fund Basic Education,” and;

Whereas the “levy cliff” will occur on January 1, 2018, which is nine months prior to the State’s renewed promise to fully fund basic education by September 1, 2018, leaving Seattle Public Schools with a projected $74 million short fall for the 2017-18 school year and;

Whereas Seattle Public Schools will be forced to cut 10% of its operating budget and an estimated 440 staff positions for the 2017-18 school year, and will start going through the Reduction in Force (R.I.F) process to lay off staff and cut vital positions like teachers, assistant principals, and support staff in March 2017 with layoff notices being sent out in May or April 2017 and;

Whereas cutting staff at schools, and cutting needed central services is highly disruptive to the stability of school communities and the whole child, impacting our most vulnerable populations in greater proportion and;

Whereas Seattle students, parents, and teachers should not be forced to go through this disruption because of the State’s failure to amply fund basic education per their constitutional “paramount duty” as they promised in prior legislation;

Therefore be it resolved that Bryant Elementary PTSA demands that the State Legislature remedy the Seattle Public Schools’ 2017-18 school year budget shortfall by committing into legislation by March 1, 2017 the extension of local levy authority through calendar year 2018 AND fully funding staff compensation for school year 2017-18, without cutting any existing basic education allocations and;

Be it resolved that Bryant Elementary PTSA demands that the State comply in full with the McCleary order and the State’s promise to fully fund basic education by September 1, 2018.

[1] The “levy cliff” is the reduction on January 1, 2018 of the amount that local school districts can collect from their local and voter approved maintenance and operations levies, as set forth in HB 2893 – 2009-10.