State Budget Deal 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 the state Legislature must still approve before the special session ends Wednesday, also drops funding to reduce class sizes for kindergarten through fourth grade. 

“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.” 

Local educators reacted with an immediate expression of concern.

"From what I understand, it does deeply concern me that they’re taking more cuts to basic education when we clearly believe that they’re already in violation of the state constitution,”  said Kevin Teely, president of the Lake Washington Education Assciation. "We’re adamantly opposed to the pay cut. We think the Legislature is looking in the wrong direction. The problem is a revenue problem, not a spending problem.

"They’ve literally given billions of dollars in tax exemptions and tax loopholes over the years. They haven’t analyzed them to see if they were effective.”

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.” 

For the Lake Washington School District, the compromise budget bill means more than $5 million less in operations for each of the next two years, spokeswoman Kathryn Reith said Tuesday afternoon, citing a preliminary estimate.

There would be less money for class ratios, as well as as a 1.9 percent salary cut for teachers and classified staff, and a 3 percent salary reduction for administrators.

Other areas that could see cutbacks include Medicaid allocations and Running Start, she said, adding that administrators are sorting through the details of the compromise bill.

Lake Washington administrators, she added, need to begin immediate work on the next academic year’s budget – and incorporating these state cuts. The district needs to have a budget ready by August, when the school board historically votes on it.

The district superintendent typically introduces the budget in late June.

“We’re hitting the ground running now,” Reith said.

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. 

“From what I understand, they are going to send 1.9 percent less to school districts and tell school districts they need to deal with the problem," said the LWEA's Teely. "Now we’ll have to work with the school district on what it means. Does it mean that it shortens the school year?”

He hopes that the fewer public dollars should not translate into job cuts for the 1,600 teachers who are members of the Lake Washington Education Association. “If there is a loss of positions, we’re thinking we can absorb them through attrition.”

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.”