State Budget Hits Education Hard

State lawmakers have reached a deal for a two-year budget that cuts teacher pay by almost 2 percent and cuts salaries for other K-12 and state employees by 3 percent.

The $32.2 billion budget for 2011-13, which lawmakers must still approve before the special session ends Wednesday, also drops funding to reduce class sizes for kindergarten through fourth grade.

Enumclaw school board member and legislative representative Tim Nickson said at the local level, there will be some work in trying to figure out how state funding cuts will impact federal funding -- some of which is attached to teacher pay.

While Superintendent Mike Nelson in March had the district might be facing, "For me, I wasn't sure what the Legislature would do," Nickson said. "They generally look for the biggest thing to cut because it's the easiest. K-4 took a big hit, and the implication for that is years to come for the kids in these grades. It's sad to see."

The 1.9 percent teacher pay cut was a better alternative than a 3 percent across-the-board pay cut, which Nickson said was proposed as well. However, he had concerns the cuts would affect the district's efforts to encourage teachers to attain board certification, which has long-term benefits for the district. 

The onus to translate what the budget means for the Enumclaw School District falls to District Director of Business and Operations Tim Madden, Nickson said. Once he's done the appropriate calculations, the board will come together to figure out how to proceed, he said.

State Rep. Cathy Dahlquist (R-Enumclaw), who until December 2010 served on the Enumclaw School Board, voted against this budget. “Education absorbed 41 percent of the $4 billion in budget reductions while other departments took much less, which is unacceptable to me. The 1.9 percent and 3 percent pay cuts to school employee salaries will be very difficult to implement at the local level since every school district negotiates its own contract with teachers and administrators. In addition, these cuts are on top of retroactive defunding of programs and other budget adjustments. I am also concerned with the budget gimmick related to school apportionment payments. Budget writers used the ‘twenty-third month’ scheme to withhold $128 million, or roughly 44 percent, of the June education apportionment payments. Schools will be sent that money in July, pushing the payment into the next budget. We should not be playing games with education dollars, particularly when we have schools around the state struggling financially."

Dahlquist pointed out, however, that one positive piece of this budget was the National Board Certification funding. “The payout is a little different, but it keeps in place the incentive to retain quality teachers," she said. "I continue to believe the best way to empower people is to give them a good education. We either pay for education now, or we pay for social and criminal justice programs later.”

Randy Dorn, the state superintendent of public instruction, was clearly disappointed with the cuts to education.

“Our Constitution is very clear: education is the state’s ‘paramount duty,’” he said in response to the budget. “Our children are to receive a basic education, funded by the state. The proposed cuts to teacher salaries, classroom sizes in early grades, alternative learning programs and Medicaid billing are all basic education. I believe those cuts are unconstitutional and will lead to fewer teachers and larger class sizes. In short, they will mean that students in Washington state will not receive as complete an education as they did just a few years ago.”

“This budget was probably the hardest to write in decades,” said Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, in a statement Tuesday about the budget deal. “The slow speed of the economic recovery is still having a significant impact on our state’s revenues and we didn’t have the prospect of any help from the federal government this year.”

“We worked hard to protect our basic priorities,” Hunter continued. “Educating children is the paramount duty of the state and we do the best job we can. We maintain health care for children and the disabled, and we mitigate some of the cuts in higher education.”

Under the budget, certificated teachers and classified staff salaries are cut 1.9 percent, while administrative staff get a 3 percent cut like other state employees.

Funding is dropped to reduce K-4 class sizes, meaning average class sizes for kindergarten through third grade will rise to 25.23 children, up from 23.11, and for fourth grade to 27, up from 26.15. High-poverty schools get a break if more than half of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

“Within this budget, we address the greatest fiscal crisis of our time,” said Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle), chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “More than anything, this budget reflects the struggles felt by families and businesses across the state,” he said. “We’re all in this together–and by working together, we can produce a budget that we can all stand behind in the end.”

Sen. Joseph Zarelli, who led budget talks for Senate Republicans, said the budget was “truly bipartisan.” He noted that the budget preserves but reduces the cost of the state Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline, and consolidates back-office government functions.

The budget, which cuts broadly, protects lawmakers’ pay, The Associated Press notes in its budget coverage.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a statement Tuesday that lawmakers “made the difficult decisions needed to balance our state budget. They took the right approach by not relying on short-term fixes or budget gimmicks, and they met my requirement to leave a sizable ending fund balance to ensure we have the resources needed to carry us through our economic recovery.”

Gregoire acknowledged that under the new budget, “many families will lose critical state services that they’ve come to rely on.”  And she called on communities “to reinforce the state’s safety net, and help ensure that our most vulnerable are cared for.”