A bill sponsored by Aberdeen’s two state representatives to provide additional levy support for school districts in lower property value areas has stalled, but both are working to find a place for it in the supplemental state budget.
House Bill 2237 was drafted by Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, and Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen. It was designed to address the inequity of the state’s current school district levy and “local effort assistance” structure, which is a formula that’s supposed to even out resources so less prosperous districts don’t have a disadvantage compared to prosperous ones. Even after modifying the legislation to spread the expense over four years, the bill died in committee.
“We’re going to keep trying to fit it into the budget,” said Blake.
Monday, Walsh introduced an amendment to the supplemental operating budget to include the provisions of the bill.
“Since we implemented the McCleary fix, and since we have modified that fix several times over the past couple of years, we are left with a situation where we are not really efficiently funding our K-12 schools around the state,” said Walsh as he introduced the amendment on the House floor. “It seems every time we try to fix an imbalance in our funding formulas another imbalance crops up.”
Walsh said the amendment tries to use the local effort assistance mechanism to “basically level he playing field for school districts in the state who have ended up on the short end of the stick on the various fixes to the fix we put in place.” Local effort assistance, known in education administration as LEA, is a calculation of a district’s ability to generate $1,500 per student at a tax rate of $1.50/1,000. Districts falling below the $1,500 level are eligible for the extra assistance.
The amendment calls for changing the LEA threshold from $1,550 per pupil when levying at a rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value to $2,500 per pupil when levying at a rate of $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed value. It also increases the LEA threshold for state-tribal compact schools from $1,550 per pupil to $2,500 per pupil, and provides a hold harmless provision which prohibits a school district from receiving less LEA than it would have under the current LEA statutes.
“It has been a challenge to find the solution that will be good for all districts,” said Walsh, adding his amendment is a “short-term fix, but I think it’s necessary for the short term. In the long term, we will look for broader policy reforms that will do the same. For now this will level the playing field for school districts that have lost out so far on our fixes to the fixes to the fix.”
Walsh said budget provisos like his current amendment are “one- or two-year at most (bandage) fixes. I’d like to do something for the long term, which requires reform of the prototypical school funding model. In the meantime I’m happy to get the (bandage).”
Aberdeen superintendent
Aberdeen Superintendent Alicia Henderson is disappointed that Blake and Walsh’s original bill hasn’t moved.
The bill “is a solid bill that basically fixes the McCleary fix,” she said. “It addresses the structural problems that lead to a two-class system of school districts in the state.”
The current system, she said, basically splits school districts into two classes, those with high property values, and those who do not.
“We don’t have the tax base to generate local dollars, and initially to raise the threshold for what the state essentially backfills with state LEA dollars that the local community cannot raise,” she said.
“It’s solid legislation, not quick fix,” she said. “It’s repairing a broken funding model.”
Henderson said there is general agreement among school districts that the current funding model unfairly impacts districts in property poor districts.
“It’s disappointing because I think there is a very common agreement across the state that there is a structural inequity in the current funding model regarding the LEA and limited amount of property poor districts have to raise the same amount of money per student,” she said. “This current (budget) proposal uses the term LEA but doesn’t fix anything, and it doesn’t make sense when you think about what LEA is designed to do, which is to build up what local communities cannot raise.”
Walsh prefaced his introduction of the amendment Monday with, “This is not a cheap one.” The fiscal impact to the general fund would be $55.8 million in fiscal year 2021.
The House supplemental operating budget as passed Feb. 28 does include additional LEA allocations, including the Aberdeen School District, listed at $110,000 for fiscal year 2019-20 and $90,000 for fiscal year 2020-21. The Hoquiam School District is not slated for additional LEA allocations in the budget.
