Auburn Pta Council Resolution Supporting Fair K-12 Funding.

Auburn PTA Council Resolution supporting Fair Funding

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AUBURN COUNCIL OF PTAS RESOLUTION SUPPORTING FAIR AND EQUITABLE STATE FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS OCTOBER 14 , 2008 TH

AS PASSED BY AUBURN COUNCIL 10/14/2008

WHEREAS, the Auburn School District receives the majority of its revenue from the state’s basic education apportionment; WHEREAS, the state’s basic education apportionment funds Auburn School District at different dollar amounts compared to other school districts; WHEREAS, these funding inequities do not reflect any rational differences in geography, demographics, student population, cost of living, or any other educationally relevant variable, nor serve any compelling government interest; WHEREAS, these funding inequities have a ripple effect on other areas of education funding, including employee benefit, special education reimbursements, and local taxpayers' ability to levy revenue for the operation of schools; WHEREAS, on November 2, 2007, King County Superior Court Judge Michael Heavey ruled in Federal Way School District v. State that these funding disparities violate Article IX, section 2 of the Washington Constitution, which requires the state legislature to provide for a general and uniform system of public schools; WHEREAS, Judge Heavey also ruled that these funding disparities violate the equal protection rights of students, teachers; taxpayers under Article I, Section 12 of the Washington Constitution; NOW BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED: 1. The Auburn Council of PTAs supports legislative efforts equalizing local school district funding statewide; 2. The Council supports passage of enabling legislation in our Washington State Legislature's 2009 session; 3. The Council directs its Secretary to communicate this Resolution to Governor Christine Gregoire, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe (Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee Chair), Rep. Dave Quall (House Education Committee Chair), and all State Legislators whose districts include the Auburn School District. ADOPTED by a majority of Auburn Council of PTAs voting members present at its October 14th, 2008 public meeting, and attested to by Auburn Council of PTAs officers.

The Auburn Council of PTAs: Laura Theimer, President

Michelle Baker, Vice President Lisa Wilkinson, Secretary Jennifer Saladis, Treasurer Pat Montgomery, Advocacy

Script explaining the PTA Fair Funding Resolution: There are a number of problems with Washington State K-12 Funding. The two biggest are Adequacy (having enough revenue to educate our kids), and Equity (distributing funds equally among our School Districts and our kids). Federal Way, bless their hearts, filed a lawsuit saying that the State's current way of funding Districts is unequal and unfair. Specifically that it violates Articles I and IX of our State's Constitution. Washington's Constitution requires the Legislature to provide for a general, equal, and uniform system of public schools. We don't do that The State Supreme Court will rule on Federal Way's lawsuit next year. As they've done before, they're probably going to send it back to the Legislature and say, "Fix it". The Legislature will then do their Legislative thing, and (quote) Fix it (unquote). But they need to know that we understand what the problem is, that we're watching them, and that we want them to do the right thing. That's where this Resolution comes in. The Resolution has six 'Whereas' clauses. All a 'Whereas' is, is saying, "This is the reason we're doing this". Then it has three 'Resolved' clauses. A 'Resolved' just says, "This is what we're going to do". •

The first Resolved says we support the Legislature's equalizing School District funding

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The second Resolved says we want the Legislature to pass laws equalizing District funding.

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The third says we're going to send copies of our Resolution to the Governor, to the chairs of the House & Senate Education committees, and to all of our Auburn School District Legislators.

That's it. We've emailed copies of the Resolution to all our Unit Presidents. (Pass out printed Resolutions.)

Here's a hardcopy.

Here's what I'd like to see happen: 1. That we discuss the Resolution, to see if it's something we want to support as a Council, 2. If so, that we vote tonight on whether to pass it as a Council. 3. Third, if we pass it, I want to ask you to take the Resolution back to your Unit Board of Directors or General Membership, discuss and vote on it, and if you pass it, send copies to the Governor, the Ed Committee chairs, and your own Legislators. Here's the thing. If our Council and a bunch of our units all send Resolutions supporting Fair Funding to our Legislators, they'll know that we understand the problem. They'll know that we're watching them. And they'll know that when they 'Fix it', that they bloody well better do the right thing. What am I asking for? a. I ask you to consider and vote on the Resolution tonight. b. I ask you to take a copy of the Resolution back to your unit, modify it to include your Unit's name and Officers, and vote on it in your Officers or General meeting. c. And finally, send a copy of your Resolution to the Governor and your Legislators. That's it.

Thanks.

When at do "Equal" and "Equalizing local school district funding statewide" mean? There are many definitions of 'Equal', everything from equal dollar amounts, to equality based on need, to equality of opportunity, to equality of outcomes. A person could consider 'equal' to mean any of these things, then support or oppose this resolution based on that definition. It's important to realize that we are not writing legislation. We're telling our legislators that we want a fair and equal State funding across the state. We're telling them that we understand that there are disparities, that those disparities have no reasonable basis, and that we want K-12 funding to be fair and equal. Then, it's up to the Legislature to craft law to implement that desire. Their Basic Education Finance Task Force has already started on that. The Legislature will move from this foundation to Basic Ed Finance reform next session. We're simply telling our Legislators that it's important to us (their grassroots constituents) that they come up with a fair distribution of our limited K-12 finance resources.