The Seattle Public Schools (SPS) issued this statement ahead of oral arguments being presented Tuesday to the state Supreme Court of Washington:

School districts across the state have joined Seattle Public Schools in speaking out against the Legislature’s recently-passed public education funding plan. Many districts have evaluated the new policy and found they will actually lose funding under this new plan.

We believe any solution to public education funding must – at a minimum – maintain and add to a district’s current funding. Any plan that harms a district’s ability to educate students is not a solution.

Let’s be clear: when we talk about negative impacts to a district, we are speaking about harm to children and the educational programs designed to support their learning.

Seattle students are among thousands of students statewide that stand to lose if the Court accepts the  Legislature’s McCleary plan. Our analysis shows we receive less state funding in future years, while homeowners will pay higher property taxes. Worse yet, our taxpayers will be limited in how much levy money they can raise to backfill the revenue loss.

State funding for special education and English-language learner programs will fall short of what we need, and with the new limits on local levies, our only other option becomes cutting into other essential programs.

In our view, the McCleary plan fails to achieve the state’s paramount duty to fully fund basic education.

We do not believe the Court intended for the Legislature to institutionalize a new system of inequity. It is our hope the justices act quickly to direct legislators to fix the new problems that have been created.

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