Senators propose new way of paying teachers, school employees

OLYMPIA – A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a plan for a major shift in the way teachers and other public school employees are paid, with the state shouldering its constitutional responsibility for the cost. Now they need to find an extra $3.5 billion.

That’s the price tag every two years when the plan would go into effect early in the next decade. But the senators left open, for now, the source of that money.

The bill is the latest effort to address a constitutional problem the state Supreme Court says afflicts the way many school employees are paid. Those salaries are part of the cost of basic education, which is the responsibility of the state, the court ruled. But for decades local districts have picked up some of those costs and in recent years, as the Legislature canceled cost-of-living adjustments required by a voter initiative, the local share in some districts took up an increasing share of local property tax levies.

That created inequities around the state, because some districts have high property values, and others don’t; some districts have voters who are willing to increase levies when districts ask, and others don’t.

Over some 40 years, that resulted in “unequal opportunity for students,” Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, said Thursday in releasing the bill.

Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, said sponsors don’t expect the bill to pass in the two weeks remaining in the special session. They introduced it to start the conversation that will continue next year.