Gov’s revised budget shows improvement

Posted on 13. Jan, 2010 by George.

Yesterday, Gov. Gregoire released a second budget proposal (referred in Olympia as a Book II budget) that she believes “better reflects Washington values and principles.”  This is a revision to the budget she released in December that she immediately announced she could not support.  In a response last year, we challenged the governor to invest in what works and not abandon our most vulnerable children and families. 

LEV believes the governor’s revised budget is a good start, which reverses devastating cuts to health care and human services and the following education programs that have a demonstrated track record for boosting student achievement:

• State financial aid for low- and middle-income students;
• Early childhood education programs;
• All-day kindergarten; and
• Gifted and talented education.

In addition, we support the governor restoring the cuts to levy equalization and providing additional support for the most property-poor districts.  We are disappointed the governor did not include funding to lower class sizes in kindergarten through fourth grade and for Work Study.

To restore these cuts, the governor proposes $780 million in new revenue through a combination of new taxes, closing loopholes and money from the federal government.  The governor also restores cuts using $830 million from other state funds.  More than $950 million is cut to close the remaining portion of the $2.6 billion budget shortfall.

Raising revenue is never an easy option.  However, we believe we must protect those who depend on us the most-children, the poor and disabled, and the elderly.  This is not the time to reduce educational opportunities that Washingtonians need to secure family-wage jobs nor put out-of-work families on the street.

This latest budget approach is an improvement and better represents the interests of our state’s children, families and schools.  As budget negotiations continue this session, LEV will fight for the targeted programs that directly impact student achievement.  And we will hold lawmakers accountable for implementing education reform and for pursuing federal grants that will accelerate school improvement.

Read more about our 2010 legislative agenda.

View the Governor’s latest budget proposal.

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State of the state: tough choices ahead

Posted on 12. Jan, 2010 by Heather.

Gov. Gregoire gave her State of the State address this afternoon during a joint legislative session. As we could guess, the state of the state isn’t so hot right now, with that $2.6 billion deficit and all. To her credit, Gov. Gregoire tried to turn the negatives into positives, but as she said herself, tough choices remain.

The governor proposed making up to $1 billion in cuts and raise $750 million in revenue to support key programs.

She also advocated for specific education programs and ideas, including:

• Phase-in of all-day kindergarten
• Levy equalization and lift of the levy lid
• State Need Grant
• 2,500 worker retraining slots
• Preschool slots for 1,500 kids
• Create “All Start” — a voluntary preschool program for all 3- and 4-year-olds
• Overhaul of teacher and principal evaluation
• State intervention in our lowest performing schools

If you would like to watch the governor’s speech, find it on TVW here. Or read the transcript here.

Gov. Gregoire also revealed her “Book 2″ budget today and presented it to the Senate Ways & Means committee. We will have analysis of this budget tomorrow.

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What might $2.6 billion in cuts look like?

Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Heather.

The Legislature met for Assembly Days this week, holding work sessions to receive updates and discuss likely issues for the 2010 legislative session. Not surprisingly, the impending $2.6 billion deficit is on everyone’s mind. The Senate and House Ways and Means committees met yesterday and heard updates from staff. Bryon Moore, operating budget coordinator, presented to the Senate committee and did a good job of showing how we got here and what in FY2010 can be reduced (see his presentation here). As one might guess, things do not look good.

First, what in the 2009-11 budget ($31.4 billion) can be reduced? According to Mr. Moore, about $7.7 billion worth of program (slide 9).

Second, what’s in that $7.7 billion? (slide 10)

Third, what’s one Doom’s Day scenario of what $2.6 billion in cuts looks like? (slide 11)

This is just a scenario for illustrative purposes and does not necessarily represent what will be on the chopping block. But the state can’t axe the Department of Corrections either. Have no doubt, these cuts are going to hurt.

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I-1033 will cost the state $6 billion by 2015

Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Heather.

The Office of Financial Management came out with the official fiscal impact statement for Initiative 1033 yesterday.  Looks like by 2015 the initiative will reduce state revenue by almost $6 billion, counties revenue by $694 million and cities revenue by $2.1 billion.

The Washington State Budget and Policy Center have put these numbers in nice chart form for us visual learners.

Considering education (early learning, K-12 and higher education) make up more than 50 percent of the state’s budget, the loss of $6 billion over the next three biennia is no laughing matter — which is why LEV is opposing I-1033. Read our statement on the initiative here.

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WA receives $672 million in stabilization funds

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

The U.S. Department of Education released Washington’s first wave of state fiscal stabilization fund dollars, to the order of $672 million.

In our application, we asked for $820 million:
Restore the level of state support for K-12 in FY2009:           $362 million
Restore the level of state support for colleges in FY2009:     $0
Restore the level of state support for K-12 in FY2010:            $357.3 million
Restore the level of state support for colleges in FY2010:      $100.7 million

Nothing in the U.S. Dept. of Ed. press release indicates why we received less than we applied for. However, the feds do note that we are eligible to apply for an additional $331 million in SFSF monies this fall. And prior to the SFSF payout, Washington received $194 million in stimulus funds (for Title I, IDEA, vocational rehabilitation and independent living grants).

Much of our 23-page application contains assurances Gov. Gregoire had to sign off on. Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn only needed to sign one page, and even then it was optional, go figure. (Most likely because most school chiefs are appointed, rather than elected). Attachment A of the application provides a summary of Washington policies and procedures that “address the assurances” and “illustrate means by which Washington will address them” (page 15-16 of the PDF).

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Education news of the day - budget edition

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by admin.

State:
Budget negotiators in Olympia now must work out deal (Seattle Times)

Editorial: Protecting all of education (Seattle Times)

State budgets may lead to taxes (Tacoma News Tribune)

Editorial: Calamitous budgets for calamitous times (Tacoma News Tribune)

Proposed cuts worry educators in county (The Columbian)

House budget full of cuts, differing on K-12 schools from the Senate (The Olympian)

With billions to cut, state budget negotiations begin (Everett Herald)

House unveils its proposal to balance budget (Kitsap Sun)

Local schools will feel state budget crunch (The Daily World)

Federal:
Duncan does the math On education budget

Stimulus dollars to be released for schools

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To date stimulus $ by county now available

Posted on 24. Mar, 2009 by admin.

The state’s ARRA website now features an interactive map detailing the known amounts of federal stimulus money each county will receive.

Focusing on education, Washington knows it will receive $349 million. Not surprisingly, the counties receiving the lion’s share are the most populous (King, Pierce and Snohomish). The site also breaks down whether the funds are for Title I or Special Education.

Here’s a quick glimpse (all $ in millions):

Also, the U.S. Department of Education published a PowerPoint today on ARRA, including guiding principles and availability of funding. About half of certain stimulus funds become available to the states by the end of March, and the remainder between the summer and fall.

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State ARRA website launched

Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by admin.

Keeping in step with the expectations of transparency and accountability for stimulus funds, Governor Gregoire launched a Washington-specific ARRA website. Many details (including specific dollar amounts) aren’t available yet, but you can find contacts for programs/agencies that will distribute funds.

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Stimulus Q&A

Posted on 27. Feb, 2009 by admin.

Michele McNeil and Alyson Klein of Education Week have hosted a 4-part Q&A session on the stimulus package on their blog, Politics K-12. The Q&A posts provide a good overview in layman’s terms about how the stimulus money could impact states, districts and schools.

Round 1 focused on dollar amounts.

Round 2 focused on teachers.

Rounds 3 and 4 focused on what funds can be used for.

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Washington among budget deficit leaders

Posted on 19. Feb, 2009 by admin.

In today’s edition of The Olympian, we learned the state is now anticipating an $8 billion deficit for 2009-11. Sure, we hear California is looking at $42 billion, but how does Washington’s projected deficit really compare to other states?

The National Conference of State Legislatures surveyed the states to see what the estimated budget deficits are across the country in FY 2009 and FY 2010. Not all states write biennial budgets in odd-numbered years, meaning we can’t compare for the total projected deficit for 2009-11, so we’ll look at FY 2010 only (based on January estimates). Below is a table of the 34 states with projected deficits, including the amount of that estimate, the estimated deficit as a percent of the state’s general fund, and rankings of each state by deficit amount (out of 34), deficit as a percent of the general fund (out of 34) and population (out of 50).

The states highlighted in yellow are ranked higher than Washington in either projected deficit or deficit as a percent of the general fund, meaning they are facing more dire financial situations. What’s interesting is the number of mid-size states (like Washington) that are facing similar budget troubles as the largest states (California and New York, namely).

This chart reflects Washington’s estimated deficit last month. If we update it to the most recent projection of $8 billion (roughly $4 billion for FY 2010, or an estimated 24% of the general fund), Washington’s row would look like this:

Notice how we jump from 6th in deficit as a percent of the general fund to tied for 3rd. Yikes!

Again, these numbers are estimates, so they could change tomorrow, but they certainly provide some food for thought.

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