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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Election School Levy Approval Gobsmacks Teachers' Union

Posted by Riya Bhattacharjee on Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 2:26 PM

Looks like all those nasty audit reports about the Seattle Public Schools being irresponsible with its budget didn't dissuade the public from voting for the Seattle schools levy. Not only did the public vote, they made sure that the levy passed by a huge margin last night—nearly 64 percent—clearing the way for $48.2 million which will go toward bridging the district's budget deficit, new textbooks, and parts of the new teacher's union contract.

The levy's passage seems to have taken the Seattle teachers union by surprise. "We had doubts, we were not expecting it to pass," said Seattle Education Association Vice President Jonathan Knapp, citing the economy.

"I am certainly very happy and thankful to the voters," added Seattle school board president Michael DeBell, who rushed to counter fierce criticism of the levy last month. "It's always good to get validation from the tax payers that they support the schools." DeBell said the district had assumed that given the bleak economic climate, even if the levy passed, it would be by a slim margin.

The district expects to collect $13 million from the levy during the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and the amount will go up gradually after that for the next two years.

An informal group of levy supporters gathered at the Seattle Westin yesterday evening to watch the returns along with other campaigns. "We wanted to get our own room, but it was too expensive," said Sharon Rogers of Schools First, which ran a grassroots campaign supporting the levy.

Rogers said that Schools First had been discouraged by the opposition's campaign and a Seattle Times editorial which slammed the levy. "We felt that the editorial didn't really recognize the situation of public schools in the state of Washington," she said. "I think by passing the levy, Seattle voters have put the legislature on notice that they need to fully fund public schools."

UPDATE: Levy opponent Dorothy Neville of the Committee for Responsible Education Spending said she wasn't surprised that the levy had passed. "Levies seldom fail in Seattle," she said. "But just because it passed doesn't mean all parents support the district. They like what is going on in the classrooms and want to support the kids."

Neville urged the school board to to make the budget process more transparent and involve the community.

Comments (11) RSS

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This makes me very happy!

Posted by gloomy gus on November 3, 2010 at 2:25 PM

"I think by passing the levy, Seattle voters have put the legislature on notice that they need to fully fund public schools."

Or maybe that they don't need to bother, because people will pick up the slack by voting for desperate stopgap measures every election?

Posted by 9eh7q13bhq89- on November 3, 2010 at 2:51 PM

Now that everyone's lost their house, no one is worried about a property tax levy.

Posted by Kris on November 3, 2010 at 3:02 PM

I guess that people think throwing money at schools will solve the education problem. I voted yes because I will always always vote to give more money to schools. Maybe it will work someday?

Posted by emor on November 3, 2010 at 3:08 PM

The opponent's points were too "inside baseball". If you've got kids in the Seattle schools, and they're not going to one of the recently overhauled ones, the need for facilities funding is painfully obvious. Send a message to the district or fix the leaky roof in my kid's school--pretty easy choice.

Posted by Westside forever on November 3, 2010 at 3:25 PM

Let's hope some of the No side run for the School Board. Griping never changes anything.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 3, 2010 at 3:29 PM

@Will in Seattle: True, and it will happen.

Posted by WenG on November 3, 2010 at 3:59 PM

I called you back, Riya.

Sorry @5, but this money cannot and will not fix that roof. Better think of something else.

I am not sure what inside baseball means. We opposed the levy because it funded new initiatives and actually leaves the students more vulnerable to ongoing budget deficits. Anyone who voted for the levy thinking it was going to restore some funding to schools, well, live and learn, folks. If you want to see that happening, better get a lot more active, informed and figure out some other way to get the district to fund schools first. The board is not united in that at all. You would know that if you attended yesterday's 4 hour budget work session. Two of our CRES members were there. Were any of the "give them the money and then get them to use it for kids" folks there? I didn't see any.

School levy usually gets 75% approval. The preliminary figure is 64% I hardly call that a strong signal that all is well.

Now it is time for the Board to come through with their promises, such as that letter DeBell wrote to the union you published. It had promises like not starting new unsustainable initiatives. No more chaos, fund schools first. Let's see how they vote on TfA tonight to see how that's goin' for them.

Posted by Dorothy on November 3, 2010 at 4:41 PM

"I think by passing the levy, Seattle voters have put the legislature on notice that they need to fully fund public schools."

Where is the logic of this? Seattle voters just told legislature that they're willing to fund schools. Why should they step up?

Perhaps the legislature is thinking that since Seattle voters are such suckers and will vote to tax themselves for schools no matter how dysfunctional and corrupt the board and staff are, no matter how obvious it is that they've been robbing students for their own agendas and have no plans to change their behavior, why oh why should the legislature take seriously the need to fund the district?

Just like MGJ's rationale with Performance Management. Let's starve schools and hoard all the dough. The PTAs ramp up their fundraising, then we'll dish out some of the money we grabbed to the few schools without PTA support. Voila! Budget accomplished! So the Seattle voters just told MGJ that's fine. Seattle Council PTSA knows that the levy money is for new projects and won't restore funds that have been cut from schools, yet they sold their members on the levy by telling them that it would offset cuts. So much for transparency.

Posted by Dorothy on November 3, 2010 at 9:47 PM

" The opponent's points were too "inside baseball". If you've got kids in the Seattle schools, and they're not going to one of the recently overhauled ones, the need for facilities funding is painfully obvious. Send a message to the district or fix the leaky roof in my kid's school--pretty easy choice"

What is inside baseball about the state audit saying

"District management and the School Board have put public resources at risk"

What part of that don't you get?

Also, this is an OPERATING budget, not capital. Can't fix the roof. Is your school on the BTA list for a roof repair (that was voted on in Feb.)? Look it up, it's at the district website.

But do keep in mind, this district has been cutting back on maintenance since the late '70s (we spend half what we spent then). We have $500M in backlogged maintenance. But yes, do keep giving these people money - you can see what they aren't doing with it.

And late, the next state audit - it's on the capital program - it's been 2 years in the making. It will get your attention and hopefully make people see that our district is NOT being managed well.

Posted by westello on November 3, 2010 at 9:59 PM

Hey, annoying anti-public school idiots, the election's over. Get over it.

Posted by Move to Bellevue on November 4, 2010 at 12:08 AM