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Title : Families and Education Levy Changes Endanger SPS School Supports
link : Families and Education Levy Changes Endanger SPS School Supports
Families and Education Levy Changes Endanger SPS School Supports
From Summer Stinson at Washington's Paramount Duty:EMAIL SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL and MAYOR DURKAN and tell them NO CUTS to K-12 PROGRAMS in the FAMILIES AND EDUCATION LEVY.
Mayor Durkan is defunding and discontinuing crucial K-12 public education equity programs by not including them in the upcoming Seattle Families and Education Levy. Examples of programs that have received notices that they've been cut from the Families and Education Levy are:
(1) SPS's Family Support Program-- Family Support Workers ensure that students and their families have access to basic needs; i.e. clothing, food and housing resources, provide emotional and behavioral support, serve as a link for parents to engage in the school community and assist them with referrals to community agencies,
and (2) a middle school close-the-gap equity program. I've heard from parents at Hawthorne Elementary and Eckstein Middle School about the notices that the schools received about these programs being cut from the Families and Education Levy, which completely defunds these programs.
It appears that Mayor Durkan is redirecting the Families and Education Levy to preschool and 2-years free college at the expense of K-12 public school wrap-around services. Defunding K-12 equity programs is unacceptable!
We need to mobilize parents, students, and school communities to take action and demand that the City of Seattle stop defunding K-12 public school programs. The Seattle City Council can and should be taking action on this and insisting that Mayor Durkan to cease these cuts.
The City Council needs to hear from parents on this. Please email: Seattle Council Members (council@seattle.gov); the city Department of Education and Early Learning (dwane.chappelle@seattle.gov); and Mayor Jenny Durkin (jenny.durkan@seattle.gov ).There's much that I will add:
I received a poll on the upcoming levy that floated the idea that the Families and Education Levy may be $650 Million over 7 years. It's astonishing to me that the city would consider a levy for such a sum--all while defunding and discontinuing necessary educational programs and wrap-around services, such as Family Support Workers.
- I'll ask but I'm willing to bet the district and/or Board was not consulted on this. And this happening when the City is being very kumbaya about working with the district. Again I say - this is not what a partnership looks like.
- This is the City's levy and they can put forth any kind of spending of the money that they want. However, I believe if they asked, this would not be what people would cut.
- Mayor Durkan has said she would take funds from this levy for her Promise Program for free community college for Seattle graduates. Well, taking money from programs that support younger learners seem a little odd because how will those kids get the supports they need in order to graduate?
- I am also hearing that they will roll the Pre-K levy into the F&E and I suspect that is to be able to spend more on Pre-K as it is more costly than they thought. They need to be transparent on these dollars.
- Family support workers have been part of the Families and Education Levy for decades - and are a top priority every time the community is asked what they want the Levy to fund. (this via reader Robert Crunkshank)
- I went to most of the City Council's event about pre-k-12 public education. Not a word about this.
- If the City wants to do it, so be it. But they should understand the landscape. The Legislature enacted a huge property tax on Seattle which is hitting mailboxes right now. Then, the City wants to ask for what looks like a huge F&E levy at about $650M.
If they cut basic support programs to low-income schools, the optics are terrible.
If they roll Pre-K into the levy, the optics are not good. Why do that?
If they include charter schools into the levy, the optics are terrible. If they choose this particular option, I'm out. And, I'll consider waging a campaign against the levy. (The last time I ran one campaign - against I-1240 - it barely passed with less than 2% of the vote. It didn't pass at all in Seattle.)
- Want to guess who might lose if the City passes this huge levy? SPS and not just in lost programming. The district will then have to try to pass not one but two levies just months later. I say the Board should vote to have the election for the Operations and Capital levies in AUGUST and let the chips fall where they may for the City.
Tell the City they need to do two things - be transparent with what dollars will be spent on what AND explain why the district no longer needs family support workers (or why the City thinks the district has the money for them).
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