KOMO's John Carlson and I were doing a show with other alleged journalists on the Seattle Channel yesterday and talking about, among other issues on the ballot, renewing the Families and Education Levy. It would raise $232 million over seven years for projects including early learning and student health care, but it wouldn't be formally part of the Seattle School District budget. I'm for it; he's against it. Carlson says we're spending more per student each year and that past levies haven't closed the achievement gaps they were supposed to close. On the other hand, I contend that the state has failed to meet its constitutional obligation to fund basic education (a judge agrees on this point) and that the city needs to supplement schools with local levies.

I said that it's hard to close the achievement gap when the legislature is "systematically cutting back on funding for K-12... every year." Carlson shot back that "they added to the K-12 budget every year, even during the recession." He went on to claim, apparently switching to a city school district figure, that we're spending "more than $12,000 per student."

But Carlson is playing a numbers game, and those numbers are just wrong. State funding for basic education has remained fairly steady from the 2008 to the 2011 biennial funding cycles, dropping slightly from $5.1 billion to $5 billion, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. That's not quite as dramatic a decline as I phrased it, admittedly, but the K-12 budget hasn't gone up every year of the recession as Carlson insists. However—and this is what I'm getting at—the demands on that lean budget have gone up: The state now reports 11,000 more students, from 980,000 in the state to 991,000 in the state. So while the state isn't significantly slashing the dollar amounts (and conservatives love to cite dollar amounts instead of the demands on that money), the state now has less money per student. For another metric of diminishing resources, consider that the state also lost 1,150 teachers in that time frame. So we are cutting funding by failing to keep up with growing enrollment.

Why else are costs up? In short, inflation. But the cost of paying for certain services also outpaces the consumer price index. Chris Barron, a spokesman for OSPI, explains, "Maintenance levels have continued to increase (outpacing revenue). ... You can see the budget has basically been the same, but costs have risen."

Even if Carlson were referring to the Seattle School District (which enjoys several levy supplements), he would also be wrong to claim the district added to the K-12 budget every year, even during the recession. In Seattle, the Seattle School District's general fund cost per student has declined for the last three school years ('08, '09, '10), from $12,127 to $11,761, says district spokeswoman Teresa Wippel. Meanwhile, the percentage of funding is coming less and less from the state (down 3 percent) and more and more from other sources including levies (up 3 percent). This helps prove my point: We rely more and more on local levies, while the state contribution to students declines.

Carlson also said that other school districts are spending 20 percent less per student than Seattle. While I couldn't compare the cost per student of every district, one fact is clear: Seattle collects an average of $5,542 per general education student annually from the state. That's only seven percent more than the state average of $5,168 per general education students.

Lots of other issues come into play when comparing an urban school district to suburban or rural districts (socio-economic challenges for urban populations that can affect achievement). Put another way: Rich kids do better in school because they live a privileged life; kids from poorer families urban public schools don't have that advantage. So it's not apples to apples, as Herman Cain would say. But it's obvious the state is sending us less money than they did before. And we're relying on levies more and more. So now is a great time to pass the Families and Education Levy.