Frustrated about budget cuts and threats of school closures? Looking for a way to take action and make an impact?
Consider subscribing to the Shoreline Action Network using the black button above.
Action alert emails are typically sent only during legislative session (January-April) and include quick and easy ways to communicate with legislators and keep public education at the top of their priority list.
Since Washington state currently underfunds public education by approximately $4B, the action network is focused on legislation that affects funding. Learn more about how the Shoreline Action Network operates here.
Also consider subscribing to Washington State PTA Action Alerts and National PTA Alerts.
Consider subscribing to the Shoreline Action Network using the black button above.
Action alert emails are typically sent only during legislative session (January-April) and include quick and easy ways to communicate with legislators and keep public education at the top of their priority list.
Since Washington state currently underfunds public education by approximately $4B, the action network is focused on legislation that affects funding. Learn more about how the Shoreline Action Network operates here.
Also consider subscribing to Washington State PTA Action Alerts and National PTA Alerts.
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Information for local PTA boards & School Closure FAQs
What is Advocacy? Advocacy is anything you do for the welfare of your students, families, school community, or district.
It’s seeing or hearing about an issue, and doing something about it, even if it’s just to inform your members, or bring it to the attention of school leaders or legislators. And since advocacy is in the very DNA of PTA, it should be part of every board member’s job. This year I'm trying to make it easy for you by providing a link (see above) to a working google document for information to share at your local board meetings. Advocacy chairs should also make an effort to attend WSPTA's Legislative Assembly and Focus Day or send a representative from their school if unable to attend. Please follow our Shoreline PTA Council 6.12 Facebook page and share posts on your school's social media.
It’s seeing or hearing about an issue, and doing something about it, even if it’s just to inform your members, or bring it to the attention of school leaders or legislators. And since advocacy is in the very DNA of PTA, it should be part of every board member’s job. This year I'm trying to make it easy for you by providing a link (see above) to a working google document for information to share at your local board meetings. Advocacy chairs should also make an effort to attend WSPTA's Legislative Assembly and Focus Day or send a representative from their school if unable to attend. Please follow our Shoreline PTA Council 6.12 Facebook page and share posts on your school's social media.
Legislative Advocacy: Funding is the current focus
- Expenditures continue to outpace revenue and for 2024-2025, Shoreline School District's current projected unreserved ending fund balance is $851,700, which is 0.5%, and 4-5% is the standard goal for school district fiscal health and stability.
- State and federal funding does not support the current full program of education in Shoreline. Washington State public schools are chronically underfunded, and Shoreline School District provides much more educational and support services than are paid for by the state.
- Rising costs mean that our expenses are projected to exceed our revenues this year by $4 million.We must continue to take significant steps to avoid binding conditions so we can continue providing high-quality education to our students.
- Salary and benefit expenses exceed state funding by $27 million.
- Materials, supplies, and operating costs (MSOC for short) which includes legally mandated insurance exceed state funding by $2.2 million.
- Legally mandated special education services for students exceed state and federal funding by $8 million.
- Substitute costs exceed state funding by $1.2 million
- While districts should not have to, we rely on local levy collections to provide the essential services needed to meet the needs of our students, to support a fair living wage for our staff, and to provide additional staffing beyond what is state funded. In addition, the maximum amount we can ask for from our voters is capped by the state.
- Declining enrollment equates to less funding from the state
- Because we are funded based on the number of students we have, not the actual educational and support needs of our students, when enrollment goes down, so does the funding we receive from the state. (Learn more about the Prototypical Funding Model and its shortcomings)
- Learn more about the Shoreline School District budget emergency, what has been done to address it so far, and what options we have to balance our budget.
- Shoreline is not alone in this crisis. "Nationally, Washington ranks in the bottom third of states in terms of how much funding it devotes to schools compared with its economic capacity — even while it ranks in the top five states for gross state product per capita, according to the School Finance Indicators Database." Many other Washington state districts are facing deeper cuts and 6 are now in binding conditions. www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/schools-across-wa-are-struggling-to-balance-their-budgets/
How Did We Get Here?
School funding is complex, but a simplified answer is:
School funding is complex, but a simplified answer is:
- Washington State's restructuring of K-12 education funding in 2018 due to the McCleary case, resulted in all school districts having less flexibility and less revenue than under the previous funding structure as a way to address the inequality of levies.
- The COVID crisis then gave our schools:
- 1) new crises that drew down reserves
- 2) new needs, paired with federal funding, which delayed budget cut decisions
- 3) declines in student enrollment.
- Most recently, inflation has driven up school operating costs, which has not been matched by increased state funding.
- Shoreline is already at the max of our cap for our local levy funding, so we cannot currently raise more money locally to make up the shortfall between our operating costs and the state funding. Thus, we face budget cuts.
Take Action:
Advocacy is better with a buddy! Plan a monthly meet-up with friends to check the latest advocacy updates, email legislators, or just talk over the most recent school board meeting minutes. It can seem overwhelming to stay up-to-date on your own - share the task with friends! For more tips on what to say or write to legislators read the looking ahead to legislative session 2025 section below and its linked resources or email [email protected].
1). Follow up with your State legislators. Thank them for their time and investments, but remind them that these gaps still exist for Shoreline and many other districts: special education, MSOC (utilities/insurance), transportation, and an understaffed prototypical school model. Let them know: 43% of the state budget is going towards the “paramount duty” of public education instead of 51% at its peak. Funding has decreased by $1k per pupil over the last 5 years
https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
Legislators for 1st (Lake Forest Park) & 32nd (Shoreline) Legislative Districts:
2). Consider contacting your Federal legislators regarding IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding. Under IDEA, the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average per pupil expenditure for special education. However, that pledge has never been met, and current funding is at less than 13%.
Ask the federal government to fully fund its agreed upon share which would fill many districts’ special education funding gaps.
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
3). Stay informed by attending upcoming School Board meetings or watch/read past School Board meeting minutes/agendas.
4). Stay connected to your local PTA, PTA council and/or consider joining the PTA Council Advocacy Committee. Learn more here.
5). Spread the word and ask other Shoreline and LFP public school supporters to subscribe to the Action Network.
Thank you for reading and for your collaborative advocacy!
1). Follow up with your State legislators. Thank them for their time and investments, but remind them that these gaps still exist for Shoreline and many other districts: special education, MSOC (utilities/insurance), transportation, and an understaffed prototypical school model. Let them know: 43% of the state budget is going towards the “paramount duty” of public education instead of 51% at its peak. Funding has decreased by $1k per pupil over the last 5 years
https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
Legislators for 1st (Lake Forest Park) & 32nd (Shoreline) Legislative Districts:
- Senator Derek Stanford: [email protected] / (360) 786-7600
- Representative Shelley Kloba: [email protected] / (360) 786-7900
- Representative Davina Duerr: [email protected] / (360) 786-7928
- Senator Jesse Salomon: [email protected] / (360) 786-7662
- Representative Cindy Ryu: [email protected] / (360) 786-7880
- Representative Lauren Davis: [email protected] / (360) 786-7910
2). Consider contacting your Federal legislators regarding IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding. Under IDEA, the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average per pupil expenditure for special education. However, that pledge has never been met, and current funding is at less than 13%.
Ask the federal government to fully fund its agreed upon share which would fill many districts’ special education funding gaps.
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
3). Stay informed by attending upcoming School Board meetings or watch/read past School Board meeting minutes/agendas.
4). Stay connected to your local PTA, PTA council and/or consider joining the PTA Council Advocacy Committee. Learn more here.
5). Spread the word and ask other Shoreline and LFP public school supporters to subscribe to the Action Network.
Thank you for reading and for your collaborative advocacy!
2024 Legislative Session Summary
Thank you to those who subscribed to our Advocacy Alerts and helped us send 21,602 letters to Washington state legislators during the 2024 legislative session. These collaborative efforts led to Shoreline gaining revenue and a higher unreserved fund balance of $4.4M (2.6% of expenditures) for 2023-2024-double than what was projected.
Statewide Outcome
$2.9B was put in the state budget towards public schools, but not all of that funding is new -- some is maintenance level funding from legislation that was passed in previous years, some is for capital budgets (school construction), and some is for early learning education (not K-12). As frustrating as it is, funding cannot be moved from these different buckets to address any funding gaps in a district’s operational budget. OSPI estimates that there remains a $1B deficit in K-12 funding.
These are the NEW funding highlights for K-12 education operational budgets:
5882: $71.78M in funding to modify the prototypical school staffing model to increase the number of funded and allocated paraeducators and office staff who support student learning. Some of this funding was allocated for the 2023-2024 school year, which helped offset some costs. For real world perspective, this increased the number of state funded paraeducators for a typical elementary school with 400 students from 0.936 to 1.012. SSD typically employs more than 1 paraeducator per elementary school.
2494: $43.61M ($21/student) only to be used on insurance, utilities, professional development, security or central office staff (MSOC). This is only 1/4 of what Shoreline needs to fill its insurance funding gap. Some of this funding was also allocated for the 2023-2024 school year, which helped offset costs.
2180: $19.63M to raise the Special Education funding cap from 15% to 16%. SSD is currently at 13.5% so this won’t increase funding for our district unless the percentage of students identified for special education services increases.
$24.24M for this and next summer meals-Summer Electronic Benefit transfer
$5M for training for inclusionary practices to reduce isolation/restraint practices
$1.786M for experience factor-this helps to retain experienced certificated staff
For a total of just over $166M in new spending for K-12 for the 295 districts in our state.
Other legislative wins included the passing of these policy bills:
5852 special education safety net funding
5883 moving the burden of proof for special education from parents to the district
8007 asking the federal government to fully fund IDEA or 40% of special education funding
5462 requiring inclusive learning standards, curricula, and materials
Another positive to consider is that the final budget passed by legislators is more generous to K-12 education than what was initially proposed by Governor Inslee at the start of session.
Unfortunately, not enough significant steps or investments were made to stave off budget reductions for Shoreline or many of the 295 Washington school districts. There are many possible ways our district could work to bring expenses in line with available revenue. With rising costs, anything that is unfunded by the state and not supported by the Prototypical School Model (PSM) has to be looked at as part of considerations.
Looking ahead to Legislative Session 2025
WSPTA, WSSDA, WASA, ESD and AWSP are working on plans to collaboratively advocate for the 2025 legislative session to address K-12 funding in these 3 areas: transportation, special education and MSOC. Although, there are many other legislative issues that could be addressed we are most effective when we are all asking for the same thing from our legislators. Shoreline SD also has these resources on their website: Legislative Priorities, Participating in the Legislative Process and 2024-2025 Budget Summary.
Statewide Outcome
$2.9B was put in the state budget towards public schools, but not all of that funding is new -- some is maintenance level funding from legislation that was passed in previous years, some is for capital budgets (school construction), and some is for early learning education (not K-12). As frustrating as it is, funding cannot be moved from these different buckets to address any funding gaps in a district’s operational budget. OSPI estimates that there remains a $1B deficit in K-12 funding.
These are the NEW funding highlights for K-12 education operational budgets:
5882: $71.78M in funding to modify the prototypical school staffing model to increase the number of funded and allocated paraeducators and office staff who support student learning. Some of this funding was allocated for the 2023-2024 school year, which helped offset some costs. For real world perspective, this increased the number of state funded paraeducators for a typical elementary school with 400 students from 0.936 to 1.012. SSD typically employs more than 1 paraeducator per elementary school.
2494: $43.61M ($21/student) only to be used on insurance, utilities, professional development, security or central office staff (MSOC). This is only 1/4 of what Shoreline needs to fill its insurance funding gap. Some of this funding was also allocated for the 2023-2024 school year, which helped offset costs.
2180: $19.63M to raise the Special Education funding cap from 15% to 16%. SSD is currently at 13.5% so this won’t increase funding for our district unless the percentage of students identified for special education services increases.
$24.24M for this and next summer meals-Summer Electronic Benefit transfer
$5M for training for inclusionary practices to reduce isolation/restraint practices
$1.786M for experience factor-this helps to retain experienced certificated staff
For a total of just over $166M in new spending for K-12 for the 295 districts in our state.
Other legislative wins included the passing of these policy bills:
5852 special education safety net funding
5883 moving the burden of proof for special education from parents to the district
8007 asking the federal government to fully fund IDEA or 40% of special education funding
5462 requiring inclusive learning standards, curricula, and materials
Another positive to consider is that the final budget passed by legislators is more generous to K-12 education than what was initially proposed by Governor Inslee at the start of session.
Unfortunately, not enough significant steps or investments were made to stave off budget reductions for Shoreline or many of the 295 Washington school districts. There are many possible ways our district could work to bring expenses in line with available revenue. With rising costs, anything that is unfunded by the state and not supported by the Prototypical School Model (PSM) has to be looked at as part of considerations.
Looking ahead to Legislative Session 2025
WSPTA, WSSDA, WASA, ESD and AWSP are working on plans to collaboratively advocate for the 2025 legislative session to address K-12 funding in these 3 areas: transportation, special education and MSOC. Although, there are many other legislative issues that could be addressed we are most effective when we are all asking for the same thing from our legislators. Shoreline SD also has these resources on their website: Legislative Priorities, Participating in the Legislative Process and 2024-2025 Budget Summary.
Further Questions? Want to do More? Contact us!
If you have any questions or want to be more involved, please reach out to your own school's PTA Advocacy Chair or the Shoreline PTA Council's Advocacy Chair, Malorie Larson.
Shoreline PTA Council's Advocacy email: [email protected]
Shoreline PTA Council's Advocacy email: [email protected]