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Title : I'm Not Voting for the New Families&Education Levy; Here's Why
link : I'm Not Voting for the New Families&Education Levy; Here's Why
I'm Not Voting for the New Families&Education Levy; Here's Why
I want to preface this thread by noting what former Councilman Tim Burgess, the co-chair of the current levy campaign, said at an event. He said that voters have always supported this levy because it supports Seattle's kids.
Okay but here's the thing - every single time ANY levy comes before voters, they should examine it. Question it. Review it. There should be no emotional blackmail - "it's for the kids! - for any kind of vote. Because tax dollars are so precious, whatever we spend them on needs to have clarity in vision and the confidence that the dollars will be well-spent.
I came to this decision to say no to the levy with sadness because I have supported this levy since its inception. But this current levy, the Families, Education, Pre-school and Promise levy is a radical change from previous ones, both in scope and cost.
1) The new F&E levy will cost the median Seattle homeowner $248 each year, up from $136 a year under the two present levies. It’s really not fair to say a small extra amount a month doesn’t matter; for those who are low-income or have fixed incomes, it does count.
With the larger property tax increase already enacted by the Legislature to fulfill the McCleary decision, I question a dollar increase AND an expansion of the F&E levy. And, Seattle Schools has its own two levy renewals in Feb. 2019 and I believe that with those four large property taxes, there might be voter fatigue.
It would be catastrophic if the district were to lose one or both of their levies.
As well, the City has many other pressing problems. Is expanding the Department of Education at the top of that list? I don't know if I believe they have the ability or bandwidth to handle this much additional work.
2) About Pre-K. I don't argue that Pre-k isn't a good thing. It is.
To note, the City was funding Pre-k in the F&E levy prior to its separate Pre-K levy passed in 2014. Here are the numbers:
In 2014-2015 in the Families & Education levy, Pre-k was 25% of the F&E levy which was $8.4M.
In its own Pre-K levy, the total was $58M, or a little over $14M a year.
Those two totals combined are about $22M.
Now, with Pre-K rolled into the F&E levy, Pre-K will be 56% of the levy, about $363M.
Pre-K spending will go from $22M to $53M a year.
With the news that Jeff Bezos will be creating free, high-quality Pre-ks for low-income families, you have to question this kind of spending.
Seattle is also paying more for its Pre-K than the gold-standard for Pre-k, Boston; $12K versus $11K. Boston also accesses both state and federal dollars for its program; Seattle, not at all.
As well, the growth of Pre-K is highly dependent on space.
The City gets space in SPS for free for its Pre-ks and so, if they have to pay for space, that will be a problem for growth. Where will the money come from for that space?
The City claims they have created "new" Pre-K spaces but many are co-opted from previous Pre-K offerings. So how many new spaces have been created? It's not clear.
Lastly, the Times just had an article on the latest Seattle Pre-K program evaluation. There was a lot to like except for a couple of problems. The cost for each evaluation? $475,000 a year. Complete evaluation? Nope, they didn't cover discipline and have no numbers on suspensions or expulsions. (Yes, Seattle's Pre-K suspends 4-year olds.)
3)The City has been unclear about whether they will continue to support in-school Family Support Workers as part of the K-12 portion of the F&E levy. As someone who volunteers in a Title One school, I can tell you first-hand how greatly needed in-school Family Support workers are for low-income or immigrant families. Families count on those staff to be at school, not having the work out-sourced off-site.
4)There is no language in the new F&E levy that says that the K-12 dollars can only go to Seattle Public Schools. Meaning, any charter school in Seattle could access those dollars.
Recall that in 2012 city of Seattle itself voted in - in a firm majority –against charter schools.
I had a lawyer who specializes in public education issues check that language and there is nothing there in the levy language that protects the K-12 dollars for Seattle Public Schools.
Why do I think this could happen? To wit:
- In October 2014 the Levy Oversight Committee, chaired by former City Councilman Tim Burgess, suggested that charter schools become eligible for Levy dollars.
- Given that earlier this year, Green Dot Charter Schools was able to get an illegal zoning departure for one of their new schools. The City did not follow its own code and the Seattle School Board sent a sharply worded letter to the City Council. I suspect there are those on the City Council who may support charter schools and may have pushed that departure.
(I do want to note that I support the Promise program for ANYSeattle public school graduate, charter or not.)
The other question is if the City can give charter schools city levy funds. I think they could but I also think the City could say the levy funds are only for SPS schools.
I say that because while the State recognizes charter schools as public schools, they also recognize them as different because charter schools do NOT get education dollars from the same pot as traditional public schools and because charter schools have no direct elected oversight.
If the State sees charter schools as different, so can the City.
My understanding is that the City Attorney's office is working on this. Weird, don't you think they should have gotten it done BEFORE the levy went out? Or will it just be convenient to get a ruling AFTER the election?
The Mayor and the City Council have sent out a levy that is vague in places. Voters need clarity in a levy, not confusion.
If the levy does not pass, there are funds to continue on because there is currently $12M in underspend in the F&E levy and $1M in the pre-k levy.
If the levy loses, it will be a signal to the City to retool it and get it right. They can come back in April 2019 with a new levy.
I urge a no vote on the 2018 Families, Education, Preschool and Promise levy.
thus Article I'm Not Voting for the New Families&Education Levy; Here's Why
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