Budget Updates for SPS and Washington State
In case you didn't hear, last Wednesday the economic forecast was released for Washington State. It showed flat growth which was actually good news as it means the Legislature doesn't have to find more cuts (in theory).
Here's what was stated by Duggan Harman who is the Assistant Superintendent of Business & Finance (aka the budget guy) for SPS at last week's Board meeting.
He stated the following:
An essential read is Publicola's Let the Budget Battle Begin piece, featuring State Senator Andy Hill (R-Redmond) and State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) who are the lead budget writers for their respective chambers. Also, this interview with Ross Hunter has a lot of interesting ideas about education funding.
Here's what was stated by Duggan Harman who is the Assistant Superintendent of Business & Finance (aka the budget guy) for SPS at last week's Board meeting.
He stated the following:
- SPS has an $18M shortfall. Staff has found cuts that would make up for two-thirds of the shortfall but they are one-time cuts. A couple of thoughts to close the gap - increasing kindergarten tuition (again) and transportation reductions.
- SPS, along with several other districts including Tacoma, Spokane, Bellevue and Highline, have sent a letter to the Legislature urging them to pass ESB2261 (which is the full-funding measure for Washington State K-12 schools). It would include fully funding transportation, K-3 high-poverty students would be in classes no larger than 17:1, funding full-day K as well as materials, supplies and operations costs. April 12th, the superintendents in these districts will travel to Olympia to lobby for passage of the bill.
- If this bill passes, for SPS alone, the district would get an additional $24.9M and by 2017, $82M. Eighty-two million dollars more for our district. Can you imagine?
- Sequestration would not hit the district this year but next year would be terrible. Title I would lose $800k, Title II would lose $147k, ELL would lose $55k, etc. Overall, the dollars lost would be about $1.8M. Note that this would hit the students who most need those dollars.
- The Legislative session is to end April 28th.
An essential read is Publicola's Let the Budget Battle Begin piece, featuring State Senator Andy Hill (R-Redmond) and State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) who are the lead budget writers for their respective chambers. Also, this interview with Ross Hunter has a lot of interesting ideas about education funding.
Comments
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Aid-crews-responding-to-multi-causualty-traffic-accident-199950971.html
-neighbor
ALSO we have DUggan Harman and other criminals ruining the budget yearly, but this blog continues to
operate as if this were acceptable.
Until we tax these thug corporations we will never fund education.
2 1/4yearstogo
"That's about 15 percent higher than last year's rate of $2,370 and about 31 percent higher than tuition for the year before, $2,070. And tuition is almost certain to rise another 15 percent the following year, DeBell said."
So are they planning on raising K tution even more than 15% for next year? Maybe eliminate their supposed subsidy all together and raise tuition 30%? I would love to see a breakdown of where all of that money is going.
I don't regret sending my child 1/2 day this year at all, and I suspect more will soon follow if tuition keeps rising. It is an incredible amount of money to pay when you consider your child will be in a classroom with 28 other students. It doesn't add up.
1/2 Day Parent