FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carrie Shaw (425) 344-1787

Consensus on K-12 state spending – lower classroom size, spend less on administration, fund education first, and give principals more budget control
Over 3,200 citizens weigh-in on McCleary court decision – survey findings include majority support for levy swap idea

Issaquah, Wash. – According to survey findings released today by Community Forums Network (CFN), respondents overwhelmingly favored reducing classroom size, spending less on administrative costs, giving school principals more control of their individual school budgets, and requiring the state Legislature to fund the K-12 budget first before other spending priorities. A majority of respondents also expressed support for a recent bipartisan levy swap idea to increase state funding as a percentage of local school district budgets.

The summary and full report, including demographic and geographical breakdowns, are available online at www.communityforumsnetwork.org/topic-reports

A total of 3,244 people participated in forums or provided feedback through an online survey on “K-12 public education funding in Washington,” between Sept. 14 and Oct. 28, 2012. The forums and survey were promoted through 55 nonprofit organizations from around the state as part of the Community Forums Network. CFN currently has 72 diverse nonprofit partner organizations that represent education, business, labor, social services, environment, and youth advocacy interests.

“There’s a heightened understanding in Olympia that building consensus is necessary for effectively solving our state’s education funding issues,” said state Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, new chairman of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, “Fully funding K-12 education and ensuring that state spending reflects our priorities will be the main focus during the 2013 session. The Community Forums Network provides a statewide perspective, which is helpful for both citizen stakeholders and lawmakers.”

According to the Washington State Constitution, education funding is the “paramount duty” of the Legislature. Survey questions focused on “how the state should best meet its paramount duty to fully fund K-12 public education” including the options of new spending cuts, new taxes, less administrative spending, and a proposed levy swap idea that currently has bipartisan support.

“Figuring out how to respond to the need to fund K-12 will be difficult,” said state Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, “There are a lot of ideas on the table at this point, and I’m glad citizens were able to see the merit in a pretty complicated idea. The final decision is likely to be equally complicated.”

Strong consensus emerged on the importance of reducing the student-teacher ratio in the classroom. Respondents overwhelmingly stated that average classroom size matters with 72 percent saying it is either “very important” (51%) or “important” (21%) to help a child be successful in school.

“We were glad to participate in the Community Forums Network and glad to see strong citizen support for reducing class size,” said Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association. “Our classrooms are overcrowded – we have the fourth largest classroom sizes in the country. Lowering class sizes is the single most important thing we can do to improve student learning.”

The CFN survey findings were presented to the State Legislature’s Joint Task Force on Education Funding. The Task Force is preparing recommendations in response to the State Supreme Court’s Decision McCleary et al versus State of Washington. In January 2012, the Court ruled that the state was not meeting its paramount duty to fully fund “basic education” based on the state Legislature’s own definition of what “basic education” includes.

CFN Survey Highlights:

• Lower administrative costs: The greatest area of consensus emerged over the idea of asking school districts to lower their administrative costs so that more money could be spent at the classroom level. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of respondents said “yes” to this idea.
• Classroom size matters: Respondents overwhelmingly stated that the student-to-teacher ratio and average classroom size matters with 72% saying it is “very important” (51%) or “important” (21%) to help a child be successful in school.
• Fund K-12 first: A supermajority* of respondents – 70% – support the idea of a dedicated K-12 budget that legislators fund first before any other state spending.
  *Note: A supermajority represents 2/3 or 66% or higher of respondents.
• More funds for K-12: When asked about funding, a near supermajority of respondents – 65% – said that current spending levels of $12,597 per pupil per year were “not enough.”
• Give Principals more control: A strong majority of respondents (59%) favored giving principals more control over spending at their schools. Thirty-nine percent “agreed” (39%), or “strongly agreed” (21%) with the statement “school principals should have more control . . . including the authority to determine how best to allocate funds to serve their students.” This included the majority of public school teachers (53%) who either “agreed” (35%) or “strongly agreed” (18%).
• Swap levy funds: A strong majority of respondents generally agreed with the idea of a levy swap (59%) but respondents were split on how best to implement a swap: 29% liked the idea as long as it was “revenue-neutral” (where local property taxes must be reduced dollar-for-dollar in exchange for the new state dollars), while 29% supported the levy swap but only if local school districts still had the freedom to raise additional local property tax revenue.
• Find new revenue: A plurality of respondents favored fully funding basic education by “both increasing taxes and cutting funding for other government services” (28%). However, when given the choice of specific tax increases, a majority said “no” to increasing the state sales tax (52%), with most respondents (but under 50%) saying “no” to increasing state property taxes or the state Business & Occupational tax. The outliers were participants from the City of Seattle, who favored increasing state property taxes, with 56% answering “yes,” and 36% answering “no.”
• Early learning education support, but where? In general, a majority of respondents support state funded early learning education (52%). But there was no clear consensus on whether state funds should cover all children or just at-risk children.
• How should new spending be targeted? There was also no clear consensus from respondents on whether or not to prioritize funds toward closing the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged students and other students – although women living in the City of Seattle showed the strongest support (with 77% consensus) and men living outside the City of Seattle and in the rest of Western Washington showed the weakest support at only 31%.

“It is remarkable that organizations as diverse as Childhaven, the Freedom Foundation, Washington Education Association, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations can participate in the CFN process to discover consensus on important issues,” said Carrie Shaw, CFN executive director. “The numbers speak for themselves – over 3,200 people from across the state have provided feedback and believe that finding solutions to difficult problems should begin by discovering where there is widespread agreement and working from there.”

Shaw added that the CFN model to build a network of diverse organizations as a hub for public feedback is centered on the work of Dick Spady, co-founder and president of Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants and a longtime advocate of stronger, more convenient and more meaningful public engagement and community building strategies.

CFN’s goal during its first year was to have 50 organizations involved by the end of 2012, representing diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and communities. “We have far exceeded that goal,” said Shaw “and now have over 70 nonprofit organizations in our network.”

CFN is strictly non-partisan and works with a diverse group of Advisory Board members and partners to develop the topics and materials presented for discussion and feedback. Data gathered during a topic round is verified independently and a “Where’s the consensus?” Report is created and shared with government officials, the media, and the general public.

For more information, or to access the online survey findings, go to www.CommunityForumsNetwork.org or call toll free 800-369-2584

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