State Budget Hits Education Hard

State lawmakers have reached a deal for a two-year budget that cuts teacher pay by almost 2 percent and cuts salaries for other K-12 and state employees by 3 percent.

The $32.2 billion budget for 2011-13, which lawmakers must still approve before the special session ends Wednesday, also drops funding to reduce class sizes for kindergarten through fourth grade.

“This budget was probably the hardest to write in decades,” said Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, in a statement Tuesday about the budget deal. “The slow speed of the economic recovery is still having a significant impact on our state’s revenues and we didn’t have the prospect of any help from the federal government this year.”

“We worked hard to protect our basic priorities,” Hunter continued. “Educating children is the paramount duty of the state and we do the best job we can. We maintain health care for children and the disabled, and we mitigate some of the cuts in higher education.”

Under the budget, certificated teachers and classified staff salaries are cut 1.9 percent, while administrative staff get a 3 percent cut like other state employees.

Clover Park School District Superintendent Debbie LeBeau anticipated a worst-case scenario of up to 10 teacher layoffs. The budget reductions approved by the board in April include one full-time equivalent (FTE) central certificated employee and eight FTE classified employees.

The central certificated employee does not work at one specific school, and the district’s classroom-coach program will be reduced from 24 to 15 educators.

While LeBeau said that she was pleased that they would not be laying off any teachers or increasing class sizes, she called the situation bittersweet.

“It feels great that we’re not cutting any teachers, but without some kind of change at the state level, we’re not going to be able to keep going like this,” she said.

LeBeau said that the district would be able to manage for the upcoming 2011-12 school year, but would have to start looking “a little harder throughout the district” in the event of further cuts.

“It’s $5.6 million – and we knew that some of those were one-time monies, like the ($2.1 million federal) stimulus funding,” she said. “And we’re using about $1.5 million from our fund balance reserves – you can’t keep doing those things over and over.”

Across the state, funding is dropped to reduce K-4 class sizes, meaning average class sizes for kindergarten through third grade will rise to 25.23 children, up from 23.11, and for fourth grade to 27, up from 26.15. High-poverty schools get a break if more than half of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

 “Within this budget, we address the greatest fiscal crisis of our time,” said Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle), chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “More than anything, this budget reflects the struggles felt by families and businesses across the state,” he said. “We’re all in this together–and by working together, we can produce a budget that we can all stand behind in the end.”

Sen. Joseph Zarelli, who led budget talks for Senate Republicans, said the budget was “truly bipartisan.” He noted that the budget preserves but reduces the cost of the state Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline, and consolidates back-office government functions.

The budget, which cuts broadly, protects lawmakers’ pay, The Associated Press notes in its budget coverage.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a statement Tuesday that lawmakers “made the difficult decisions needed to balance our state budget. They took the right approach by not relying on short-term fixes or budget gimmicks, and they met my requirement to leave a sizable ending fund balance to ensure we have the resources needed to carry us through our economic recovery.”

Gregoire acknowledged that under the new budget, “many families will lose critical state services that they’ve come to rely on.”  And she called on communities “to reinforce the state’s safety net, and help ensure that our most vulnerable are cared for.”