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Legislative Advocacy
The Shoreline School District is currently facing significant budget cuts, which will impact students and staff. Please read further for more information about the budget and for action steps that we can take at the state and local levels. Thank you for getting involved and advocating for our students!
District Budget Deficit: How Did We Get Here?
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 the Shoreline School District having less flexibility and less revenue than under the previous funding structure. 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, and 3) declines in student enrollment. In addition, inflation has driven up school operating costs, which has not been matched by increased state funding. Finally, 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.
Please learn more about the school budget outlook here and here.
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 the Shoreline School District having less flexibility and less revenue than under the previous funding structure. 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, and 3) declines in student enrollment. In addition, inflation has driven up school operating costs, which has not been matched by increased state funding. Finally, 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.
Please learn more about the school budget outlook here and here.
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.
Detailed below is an explanation of the results of the 2024 legislative session and suggestions for next steps.
If this is too long to read, the short version is:
Small steps were taken in the right direction, but not enough to stave off budget cuts for Shoreline and many other Washington school districts. Stay informed and keep advocating.
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
$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.
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 will be allocated this school year, which will help offset costs.
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 will also be allocated this school year, which will help 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. What specifically lies ahead for Shoreline is yet to be determined as OSPI is in charge of taking these dollar amounts and deciphering how they will be dispersed to districts. The Shoreline School District (SSD) staff and School Board will then take the numbers from OSPI and work with the Bugdet Advisory Team (BAT) to determine next steps. There are many possible ways the 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. Keep an eye out for the BAT March 11th meeting resources which were supposed to address the PSM.
Next Steps:
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 watching/reading School Board meeting minutes/agendas.
https://www.ssd412.org/school-board/attend-a-meeting
4). Stay connected to your local PTA, PTA council and/or consider joining the PTA Council Advocacy Committee. Email: legchair@shorelinepta.org if interested or with follow up questions.
5). Spread the word and ask other Shoreline and LFP public school supporters to subscribe to the Action Network.
Thank you for reading and thank you for your effort this session!
Detailed below is an explanation of the results of the 2024 legislative session and suggestions for next steps.
If this is too long to read, the short version is:
Small steps were taken in the right direction, but not enough to stave off budget cuts for Shoreline and many other Washington school districts. Stay informed and keep advocating.
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
$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.
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 will be allocated this school year, which will help offset costs.
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 will also be allocated this school year, which will help 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. What specifically lies ahead for Shoreline is yet to be determined as OSPI is in charge of taking these dollar amounts and deciphering how they will be dispersed to districts. The Shoreline School District (SSD) staff and School Board will then take the numbers from OSPI and work with the Bugdet Advisory Team (BAT) to determine next steps. There are many possible ways the 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. Keep an eye out for the BAT March 11th meeting resources which were supposed to address the PSM.
Next Steps:
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: derek.stanford@leg.wa.gov / (360) 786-7600
- Representative Shelley Kloba: shelley.kloba@leg.wa.gov / (360) 786-7900
- Representative Davina Duerr: davina.duerr@leg.wa.gov / (360) 786-7928
- Senator Jesse Salomon: jesse.salomon@leg.wa.gov / (360) 786-7662
- Representative Cindy Ryu: cindy.ryu@leg.wa.gov / (360) 786-7880
- Representative Lauren Davis: lauren.davis@leg.wa.gov / (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 watching/reading School Board meeting minutes/agendas.
https://www.ssd412.org/school-board/attend-a-meeting
4). Stay connected to your local PTA, PTA council and/or consider joining the PTA Council Advocacy Committee. Email: legchair@shorelinepta.org if interested or with follow up questions.
5). Spread the word and ask other Shoreline and LFP public school supporters to subscribe to the Action Network.
Thank you for reading and thank you for your effort this session!
Further Question? 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: legchair@shorelinepta.org
Shoreline PTA Council's Advocacy email: legchair@shorelinepta.org