School-funding inequities hurt the poorest the most

Guest columnist

By Neal Kirby
Special to The Times

How much institutional discrimination against Hispanic and poor students by Washington's school-funding system can we tolerate before we see it as a problem? Gov. Christine Gregoire's proposed state budget fails to fully fund the current levy-equalization law, hurting poor and Hispanic students in Washington.

Under the current system, a mother with a $150,000 house in Granger, Yakima County, would have to pay more than twice the local school tax dollars compared with a family with a $500,000 home in Bellevue to receive the same per-student levy amount for her child's school.

The difference reflects the inequities in the levy-tax system, which contribute to inequities in educational services throughout the state. The schools most dominated by poor and Hispanic students are the big losers.

The Granger School District, for example, had a 2005 levy-tax rate of $1.41 per $1,000 assessed valuation and raised $941 per student, counting levy equalization. Bellevue had a rate of $1.02 and raised $1,790 per student. Bellevue received almost double the per-student funds despite Granger having a 40-percent higher tax rate.

Granger would need a tax rate more than seven times that of Bellevue to collect the same per-student levy dollars. The owner of a $500,000 home in Bellevue paid $510 for that district's 2005 levy. The owner of a $150,000 house in Granger would have had to pay $1,089 to get the same $1,790 per student, paying twice the dollars despite having a house of less than one-third the value.

More than 200 school districts in the state, like Granger, are property poor. Each district is allowed a local levy up to 24 percent of the district's state and federal dollars, but most property-poor districts fail to pass the highest amount allowed.

Many districts with low property values also have lower personal incomes. Yakima County's average incomes are less than half of King County's, and differences between Bellevue and Granger are far greater.

The state's poorest citizens pay 17.6 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, while the richest pay only 3.1 percent, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Washington has the country's most regressive tax structure. The higher proportion of incomes already paid in taxes and the higher taxes in poor areas prevent school boards from seeking the excessive taxes needed to get levy dollars comparable with richer areas.

Granger's students are among the poorest. Ninety-two percent qualify for the free and reduced-cost lunch program. The parents support their schools and make a greater tax effort than Bellevue, but it's tough to pass even higher taxes to pay more.

Granger's students are also 84-percent Hispanic. The depressed timber and labor-intensive agricultural areas have large poor and large Hispanic populations. The pattern is that poor and Hispanic students most likely go to schools with far less per-student levy funds.

Differences in levies lead to poorer schools having larger classes, fewer extra training days, an older curriculum, and fewer counselors, specialists, administrators and assistants per student to help teachers in the classroom. The workload is increased for teachers and less service is provided to students, including fewer all-day kindergarten programs. (Only half-day kindergarten is state-funded.)

One benefit Bellevue teachers receive from their levy is an average of $8,930 per year in pay above state salary funding, according to state documents. Most of the added dollars pay for extra training days. Granger offers teachers an average of only $1,884 in extra pay, despite tougher working conditions due to low levies and state tests showing poverty students and Hispanics with the lowest scores.

Gregoire's failure to fully fund equalization — $8.5 million more than proposed is needed in 2006 — makes the disparities worse.

Levy equalization is a safety net that provides a state match for levies in districts with a poor property-tax base. Equalization, while helpful, is still insufficient to cover the gap between rich and poor districts. Equalization also suffers from the current law being repeatedly underfunded.

Gregoire should seek full funding of the law and expansion of equalization's use to bring greater equity in education for the state's poorest and Hispanic students. If Gregoire's current blue-ribbon panel on education funding is to have credibility, the promise of earlier commitments needs to be kept. It's a matter of trust.

The governor should not tolerate the institutional discrimination that results from our school-levy system. All students should have an equitable chance to change their lives through education. Teachers in poorer areas should not receive less pay or less training for the tougher work they do. And the poorest citizens should not have to pay the highest taxes to get their children comparable educational programs.

Neal Kirby is the principal of Edison Elementary in Centralia. A former Democratic state representative for the 7th Legislative District in Eastern Washington, he chaired the Committee for Levy Equalization, which lobbied for the equalization law.