Attack Back from the State

•"Watch the language. We've got Chicken Little in the district's finance office shouting "bankruptcy" every five minutes. This stunned even the implacable Gov. Gary Locke, who said he had never heard of a school district in this state going into receivership. The district is a publicly funded agency that cannot, technically, go bankrupt. Using inaccurate terms only confuses people."

But state funding/financing is the number 1 issues for Washington State superintendents across the state. Earlier this week, Northshore and Riverview School Districts came out with budget warnings in the Seattle Times. Puget Sound Superintendents are making state funding their number 1 and only public relations issue. It isn't just Seattle School District needing to address school finances. Buses and Special Eduation are only funding at about 60% of their true costs which means that communities are using levy funds that are for "extra", extended programs like music, sports etc... for basic education.

State officials are in a tough position because they also have a large deficit to address and have heightened public expectations for academic performance. We have been sold a wonderful, utopian vision of every student at standard by 2014 and constant improvement but we don't know if we could make this goal even if we had double or triple or quadruple the budget. This is so complicated and it is amazing to watch superintedents like Manhas and Dr. Forys struggle through these issues in a public forum.