Opinion: CCT editor provides another history lesson on funding public schools

Vancouver schools face $20-30 million cuts while teacher salaries have skyrocketed since McCleary ruling. Photo courtesy File photo

🎧 CCT Editor: Teachers Unions Eating More Than Their Share

Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance says it’s time to send a clear message to teachers’ unions that there is only one pie and the teachers are eating way more than their share of it

Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today

I received a voice mail message this week from a concerned parent of two elementary school students in the Vancouver School District. This parent was virtually distraught that her children were going to lose some popular and cherished teachers due to the district’s pending budget cuts.

Ken Vance

I immediately felt for this parent. I can remember what it was like to be a parent fully engaged in a young child’s education. During those early formative years, few things in life occupy a parent’s heart and mind like the education of their child or children.

This parent informed me that Vancouver Public Schools was facing between $20-30 million in budget cuts. She said that would mean the reduction of about 10 staff members at each school in the district. She said the teachers losing their jobs included music, art, dance and physical education.

This parent is encouraging community involvement to begin fundraising efforts to save some of these teachers from losing their jobs and she asked that Clark County Today shed a light on the issue to help with that effort. My heart truly goes out to this parent. It really does. But, I was the wrong person – by a long shot – to send this request.

A little history lesson on funding public schools

The problems with funding for public schools, especially in the state of Washington, is a complex conversation. Basically for years, the state has struggled to keep up with the funding area school districts say they need to educate our children. Those problems were exacerbated in 2017 when the legislature passed the McCleary legislation that increased the state property tax and reduced local levies. In 2019, Democrats increased local levies back to pre-McCleary levels.

The McCleary Decision was the result of a lawsuit (McCleary v. Washington). The case alleged that the state had failed to meet the state constitutional duty (in Article IX, Section 1) “to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.”

A King County Superior Court judge sided with the plaintiffs, stating that the state was indeed failing to adequately provide for basic education. On January 5, 2012, the Supreme Court agreed with the opinion of the King County Superior Court that the state was not fulfilling its obligation to fully fund education in the state. It wasn’t until June 7, 2018 that the Supreme Court declared the state had fully covered the funding of basic education.

In the McCleary ruling, the Supreme Court cited teacher pay as a primary issue with the failure of the state to fund public education. The state teachers union, Washington Education Association (WEA), seized the opportunity and promoted the increase in state public school funding as justification to increase teacher salaries, and sponsored multiple teachers’ strikes to demand them.

As a result, teachers’ salaries have skyrocketed since the McCleary Decision. The teachers unions used strikes or the threat of strikes to get its members raises of more than 10 percent and sometimes even as much as 20 percent.

Last year, the Washington State House Republican Caucus reported that Washington teachers rank second in the nation in starting teacher salaries and fourth in the nation in average teacher salary. At that time, administrators in the state were making on average $173,374 in salary and $42,079 in benefits. Teachers in our state were averaging $105,254 in salary and $31,770 in benefits. Classified staff in our state were averaging $68,743 in salary and $32,349 in benefits.

The big lie was that the increased funding for public schools in Washington to satisfy the McCleary Decision was all to be used for teacher salaries. You see, there is only one pie when it comes to funding for public schools and there are many mouths to feed with that one pie. If a disproportionate amount of that pie is spent on teacher salaries something else will suffer. The WEA representatives knew this when they insisted the McCleary money go strictly to teacher salaries. They didn’t care because they knew the state would be forced to fund public education and Democrat lawmakers would be counted on to raise taxes to increase funding. A former state legislature told me that Democrat lawmakers intentionally wait until the end of the session to fund education because they know they are bound to do so. So, they pass all the other funding they can prior to addressing public school funding. The education beast and its enormous appetite will always be fed one way or another.

The increasing crisis in public school funding in Washington state has led to some alarming results. Since 2018-19 there has been a 10 percent increase in private school enrollment and a 32.5 percent increase in homeschool students. Test scores are also down dramatically in the state. So, taxpayers are paying more and getting less from their public schools.

It was all predictable

During this process since the McCleary Decision, many of us accurately predicted the crisis area school districts – and parents such as the one who contacted me this week – would inevitably face. There are a myriad of things that each school district is required to fund with the resources it is provided. Teacher salaries are but one of those. The districts have to provide the buildings and facilities and maintenance of those as well. Supplies, transportation and support staff are just a few of the other line items in each district’s budget.

The fact that teachers’ unions greedily fought and leveraged their way to unprecedented and unwarranted pay increases that were impossible to sustain is the reason why parents like the one I heard from this week are losing their beloved teachers and staff members. The unions knew this was the inevitable outcome, but they didn’t care. They arrogantly believed that they could just hold the legislature (and therefore taxpayers) hostage time after time to get the money they wanted to fund public schools.

So, I’m sorry but not sorry that I don’t agree with this parent’s plan to raise funds to save the jobs of teachers and other staff at public schools in Southwest Washington. It’s time to send a clear message to teachers’ unions that there is only one pie and the teachers are eating way more than their share of it.