Educators Worry About Paying For School Initiatives Some Fear Lawmakers Will Cut Basics To Pay For New Programs

With voters overwhelmingly approving two ballot measures last week that will raise teacher pay and pump millions of dollars more into the state’s schools to boost student achievement, citizens have clearly voiced their support for schools, educators agree.

But now that lawmakers face the arduous task of balancing a new state budget this winter, some educators are nervous about how they’ll pay for the initiatives.

“I’m a little concerned about the natural inclination in the Legislature to replace that money by removing some of our basic education money,” said Kay Frizzell, a retired assistant superintendent of Spokane School District 81 who works as a part-time superintendent for the Great Northern School District.

Frizzell raised his concerns Tuesday at an education policies forum in Spokane put on by Washington State University. The forum drew about 45 K-12 administrators, higher education representatives and local legislators.

“As much as I am glad that those two teacher initiatives passed, funding them is going to be a real problem,” said State Rep. Alex Wood, D-Spokane. “It’s going to be interesting.”

Initiative 728, known as the Class Size and Student Achievement Initiative, is expected to collect an additional $414 million for the state’s schools in the next two-year budget cycle.

The measure will not raise taxes, but rather will tap existing funds and divert money to education to reduce class size, finance more learning time for students and increase teacher training.

The measure will leave a portion of state property tax revenues with districts and dedicate unrestricted lottery funds to education and school construction. It also will direct any excess state income - after the state fills its emergency reserve fund - toward a student achievement fund.

Meanwhile, Initiative 732 will provide automatic, annual cost-of-living pay increases for all K-12 school employees and some two-year college employees. The state Office of Financial Management predicts the measure will cost the state an estimated $420 million over the next biennium.

Wood and other lawmakers, however, said they will honor the will of voters as they work to balance the budget.

“I don’t sense any inclination for somebody on either side of the aisle to say because 728 passed we can cut back basic education funding,” said state Rep. Don Cox, R-Colfax. “I think they see it as a special purpose fund to help with (education) reform.”

However, in light of the new education funding prompted by I-728, some lawmakers may be less generous when it comes to providing extra money for special programs, Cox predicted.

State Rep. Brad Benson also said he respects the message sent by voters.

“I interpret the will of the people as that they are willing to give more money to education and I don’t think the knee-jerk reaction should be to pull money back from basic education,” said Benson, R-Spokane. “But we won’t have a good idea until about three weeks into (the legislative session) what the budget numbers really look like.”

Participants in Tuesday’s forum also discussed the state’s looming teacher and school administrator shortage and how teacher training programs and the K-12 system can work together to groom new teachers and identify new education leaders.

Judy Mitchell, dean of WSU’s College of Education, said she hopes the forum will be the start of a continuing dialogue among K-12 and higher education interests.

“We kind of have our own issues, but they do cross,” she said.