Where does the levy money go?

Voters may be surprised

by Lynn Harsh, Executive Director

School levy elections are just around the corner. What many voters do not know is that most levy dollars are spent on something other than what was advertised to get their vote.

Contrary to what we are told, most districts do not spend all of the money allocated to them on basic education. They use it instead to leverage other non-basic-education expenditures.

None of this is illegal; it’s just foolish. The dilemma is created in part by lawmakers who have placed artificial and untenable caps on administrative expenditures. As a result, school administrators, knowing the public will never pass levies to support administrative expenses, put levy money into the general pot and apportion it out however they see fit.

Voters haven’t a clue that this is how it works.

Despite the passage of two initiatives last fall - one guaranteeing teachers automatic cost-of-living raises and the other channeling millions of new dollars directly to schools - education lobbyists are in Olympia this year saying it is not enough.

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has closely examined how allocated funds and levy money are used in five school districts around the state. Our latest report, which can be viewed as a PDF at the link below, looks specifically at the Spokane and Mead school districts.

SPECIAL NOTICE

During the next six weeks, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation will be releasing extensive research related to education reform. Our analysis and recommendations will cover school financing; bilingual education; educating highly capable and at-risk students; student assessments; privatization and contracting out of school support services; the impact of collective bargaining on K-12 education; and class size.

The information we are releasing has been given to every school board member in the state.

Since we are regularly accused by education bureaucrats of hating public schools and the children and teachers in them, we thought it appropriate to include our education mission statement:

EFF’s education goal is to establish student-centered public education in Washington state by providing educational choices for all parents, children and teachers, in a safe environment, where high academic achievement can flourish.

Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director, (360) 956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org