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Friday, September 7, 2012

Education / Politics / Money A Credible Plan for Amply Funding Public Schools

Posted by Goldy on Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 1:44 PM

Since the League of Education Voters (LEV) has declined to endorse either Jay Inslee or Rob McKenna for governor due to neither candidate's willingness to offer "a credible plan for ample, sustainable funding of a world-class public education system," perhaps the LEV might want to consider endorsing me?

My education agenda is clear. If elected I would propose legislation to implement high-quality universal preschool and full day kindergarten fully funded by a five percent excise tax on capital gains in excess of $10,000 a year. Under the Goldy Plan, less than three percent of Washington households would see their taxes rise, while the hundreds of millions of dollars districts would save each year from reduced expenditures on remediation, special education, and other "high intensity interventions" would be reinvested in our public schools.

No, that's not enough to fully meet the demands of the McCleary decision, but it would provide a helluva head start. So to speak.

Of course I'm not running for office, so the LEV should feel free to aggressively push either my early learning or "Education Income Tax" plans on their own. Unless, you know, they're too busy burning their political capital promoting charter schools.

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That would only affect 3% of households? Do seriously that few people not have savings / investments?

Posted by scary on September 7, 2012 at 1:55 PM

@1 Seriously, that few households realize annual capital gains in excess of $10,000 outside the sale of their primary homes (which, I forgot to mention, would also be exempt). In fact, 96 percent of all capital gains goes to households earning over $1 million a year.

Posted by Goldy on September 7, 2012 at 2:01 PM

McCleary, not McLeery. You're welcome.

Posted by Most real journalists can spell on September 7, 2012 at 2:30 PM

I'm all for that idea. Still, I am inclined to think that it would suffer from the same revenue uncertainty as sales taxes. I suspect on years when the stock market goes up, there would be a lot of funding (people sell stocks for profit, which is required for qualifying as "capital gains"). On years when the market is middling, the funding would go way down (people either don't sell stocks or -- if they're on a fixed income -- sell many for a loss). Also, wouldn't republicans have a field day with arguing that this hurts seniors (fixed-income, blah, blah)? Those are the critiques that I see as keeping this from moving forward...have thoughts on good ways to counter them?

Posted by G g on September 7, 2012 at 4:08 PM

The public comments following the Times' article about LEV's non-endorsement of Inslee (and McKenna) explain the group has become a gas-bag of hubris, bowing to the wishes of its high tech backer Hanauer (Mr! Charter!) and the Gates Foundation and the Bezos parents and etc.

LEV gets a new one ripped on the saveseattleschools.blogspot.com blog today too. It's quite enjoyable to see LEV and Stand on the Children (the anti-public-education, anti-union, PAC out of Washington D.C.) get called out for being sham-grassroots, sham-Democrat and sham The Answer To Public Education. Most of the Corporate Education Reform movement is bankrupt to the profit makers pushing their crap down the unsuspecting public's throats.

Enough. LEV and Stand can take their endorsements elsewhere. Idaho perhaps. My man Inslee is a better gov. prospect for NOT getting a LEV endorsement.

Posted by gator bait on September 7, 2012 at 4:09 PM

Regarding @4 (myself): I came across this on the googles and internets: "Aggregate realized capital gains fell from $895 billion in 2007 to $236 billion in 2009." This is total in the U.S. (A google search of the quote will bring up articles). True, this is likely worse than anything we'll see in the near future, but it serves as an indication of the degree to which revenue from your proposal can vary on the high end: it could drop by a factor of four! That's a much less reliable revenue stream than even sales tax. I think your proposal could still work, but this hurdle would somehow have to be overcome in the structuring of the law. And the biggest danger for a program to have a revenue stream that dives when the economy dives is that it will be underfunded right at the time when the legislature is forced to find cuts.

Posted by G g on September 7, 2012 at 5:23 PM

Goldy, I don't know if I'd classify pre-school and kindergarten as "education," but I'm basing it on my own memories. (No reading, but lots of being read to. No writing at all. No arithmetic, unless you count counting.) Am I out of date?

However, you would have a very solid "free-daycare" platform.

Posted by Free Lunch on September 7, 2012 at 6:13 PM

LEV has morphed into a fairly one-sided place. It's too bad because they clearly care about other issues but really, most of their efforts now are around charters. It's mystifying until you realize that Nick Hanauer funds them and they have to do as he says. And he, along with Lisa MacFarlane at DFER (Democrats for Education Reform) seem to think they can shame/bully other Dems into believing the snake oil they are selling.

Happily, most Dems have minds of their owns and won't be bullied.

Posted by westello on September 7, 2012 at 8:05 PM

@4, @6 There are ways to deal with revenue fluctuations: reserve accounts, rate adjustments, and adjusting the income threshold and co-pay. HB 2448 would have charged a co-pay on a sliding scale at 250 percent of the poverty line, and how you slide that scale can significantly raise or lower the cost.

Ideally you would never use a dedicated tax. But our politics aren't ideal.

Posted by Goldy on September 7, 2012 at 8:18 PM

Real America's take on the DNC.....

1- Clinton making the case that:
Obama hasn't gotten the job done-not even close- but, hey!- even a demigod like me couldn't have done it.....(plus reminding everyone how much they miss Bill and what a limp noodle Obama is)

2- The vicious snarling angry rank and file Democraps rejecting God and Jerusalem (with the yummy icing of the total fiasco hamfisted clumsy way in which it was handled, managing to Piss Off and Disgust, literally, every band on the ideological spectrum- the Godless Heathens know they had the votes to defeat the measure but were screwed over and ignored and humiliated and Godfearing Real America not at all fooled by the cosmetic repair to the platform.)
Priceless.........

3- Obama's limp speech, confirming the impression of inadequacy created by Bill's boffo performance and hinting at the job numbers to come....

4- the truly frighteningly GRIM job numbers that rushed in before the hangovers were even gone mocking the Democraps party.

You couldn't make stuff up this good.......

Posted by thank you for fucking america over, democraps on September 8, 2012 at 3:46 AM

@7 Yes. Kids are pretty much expected to read and know their numbers by the time they get to kindergarten. It's like the old 1st grade. Times has changed. (And it's why kids with few pre-K opportunities start at a disadvantage.)

Posted by Fund head start! on September 8, 2012 at 7:17 AM

Goldy, I fully support your spending priorities, and they are shared by much of the legislature. Early Childhood Education was the program that suffered the least cuts of all. The WA State Budget and Policy Center estimates that the capital gains tax (Laurie Jinkins' bill) would yield $700 million per year, or $1.4 billion per biennium, which would fund the McCleary downpayment of $1 billion.

Posted by Sarajane46th