Teachers will lose their jobs and class sizes will increase.
That is the reality emerging for the Lake Washington School District as it braces for substantial cuts to their budget for the next two years.
With the state attempting to balance a budget deficit of around $10 billion, public schools are poised to take a significant hit, evidenced by the proposed state House of Representatives and Senate budgets released last week.
The proposed Senate budget would cut $877 million in funding for public schools, and the House would cut $365 million.
Lake Washington School District Deputy Superintendent Janene Fogard said that the Senate proposal cuts $8.7 million from the district, and the House, $7.6 million.
She said that the district would do all it could to ensure standards of learning were not compromised.
“It is part of the overall philosophy of the district to protect the classroom, and so we will be looking at re-efficiences that might help us direct resources into teaching,” she said. “But we do not have a great deal of flexibility. Much of the program funding we receive is categorical funding – for example, we couldn’t decide to eliminate transportation services and use that money for teachers, as the state wouldn’t give us the funding.”
She said that the Senate was currently looking at ways to “take the strings off” some basic education funding, to allow schools to be more flexible in how they spend the money.
Those funding cuts would come from I-728 dollars — an initiative approved in 2000 to reduce class sizes — and levy equalization money for property-poor districts, among other categories. Trimming I-728 funds will more than likely result in teacher layoffs.
Teacher layoffs would dramatically lower the quality of education provided by local schools, according to League of Education Voters State Field Director Kelly Munn, a Sammamish resident.
“If we had redefined what constitutes ‘basic education’ two years ago, we wouldn’t be in this position,” she said. “We would have protected core education services, and put it in the statute to guarantee certain levels of funding.”
Munn said that they were expecting many teacher to lose their jobs, with that number dependent on the amount of federal stimulus money that will be made available to offset the cuts. Education officials are being told, however, that the stimulus money was a “one off” for this immediate budget, and would not continue to be available beyond 2011, suggesting worse may be to come.
Munn said the budget cuts — and pending layoffs — could compromise the quality of lessons, with teachers being forced to cover classes with which they are not familiar. She said that increasing class sizes by one or two students across the district may not be noticeable to the bulk of students, but research showed that students at either end of the “bell curve” – bright students, and those that are struggling – are adversely effected by less teacher attention.
Final school district budgets for the coming years won’t be available until the state Legislature finalizes a budget in late spring or summer.
The budget picture is no better for university students, with the University of Washington facing a budget cut of between 23 and 30 percent, and layoffs of up to 800 staff.
Washington State University is facing a budget cut of around 30 percent also, and layoffs of about 400 staff, in the wake of what one university spokesperson described as “the worst higher education budget in the nation.”
LWSD will hold a series of meetings next week, during which it hopes to hear comments from community members on their education priorities.
April 14 — 7 p.m. Lake Washington High School, 12033 NE 80th St., Kirkland
April 15 — 7 p.m. Redmond High School, NE 104th St., Redmond
April 16 — 7 p.m. Eastlake High School, 400 228th Ave. NE, Sammamish
April 22 — 7 p.m. Juanita High School, 10601 NE 132nd St., Kirkland
