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WASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL FUNDING CRISIS: INADEQUATE FUNDING OF BASIC EDUCATION DOCUMENTED IN NEW RESEARCH PAPER

Paul Rosier, superintendent of the Kennewick School District and WASA President said,

“WASA’s report, Basic Education – General Apportionment Funding Issues, along with the two previous reports on special education and transportation, demonstrate that the state is defaulting on its primary obligation to fully fund basic education. It is the best work I have seen on the state’s paramount duty, which is to make ample provision for the education of all students as required in Article IX, Sec. 1 of our state’s constitution. This paper reveals the mystery of the single largest and most significant funding source for Washington’s public schools.”

The Ample School Funding Project was endorsed by WASA members in November of 2003. The purpose of the project is to substantiate that current state funding is inadequate to fund basic education as required by the state constitution and as affirmed in the Doran court decisions of the 1970s and 80s.

The research papers document that the formulas used to distribute the state’s basic education dollars:

• Have not been reviewed for adequacy, even though contemporary educational needs of students have changed because of education reform.
• Are insufficient to carry out the state’s required performance based expectations.
• Are not uniform.
• Provide less than full funding, which necessitates the use of local levy dollars to fund basic education.
• Do not meet the “ample provision” constitutional requirement.

“This research provides a factual, non-political view of how the state has not met its obligations,” stated Raj Manhas, superintendent of the Seattle School District. “The cold, hard data prove that voter approved local levies intended to support things that communities want are instead being used to pay for things the state, by law, must provide. That’s not what voters expect. That’s not what students deserve.”

The paper released today concludes “…the state has continually failed to study the adequacy of basic education funding (and) this failure has resulted in a crisis of basic education funding adequacy and of commitment and responsibility.”

The Ample School Funding Project has been supported financially with contributions from the Washington Association of School Administrators, the School Information and Research Services, the Washington State School Directors’ Association, the Association of Washington School Principals, the Washington Education Association and a grant from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“The study provides an important historical perspective that clarifies many troubling issues in our K-12 funding system,” commented John Erickson, superintendent of the Vancouver School District. “It also provides a foundation from which we can chart a hopeful course for the future of K-12 finance.”

The research papers are available at http://www.wasa-oly.org/asfp.htm.

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Ed. Note: 
Direct e-mail inquiries about this release to:
Barbara L. Mertens, Assistant Executive Director, WASA
mailto:bmertens@wasa-oly.org

For clarification of points in the paper, contact:
Bill Freund, Project Consultant
mailto:b_freund@prodigy.net