Saying that lawmakers aren’t going far enough to fulfill the state Supreme Court’s order on public-school funding, state Superintendent Randy Dorn on Tuesday released his own proposal.
OLYMPIA — Calling education a civil-rights issue and saying lawmakers aren’t going far enough to fulfill the state Supreme Court’s order on school funding, Randy Dorn on Tuesday released his own, more expensiveproposal.
Dorn, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, outlined a plan to spend $2.2 billion in the 2015-17 budget cycle, saying that’s what it will take to fulfill the state Supreme Court funding mandate known as the McCleary decision.
That’s a good chunk more than the $1.3 billion put forth by the GOP-controlled Senate and the $1.4 billion by the Democratic-controlled House in their proposed 2015-17 budgets.
“We do not have a system that meets the constitution, as the court has said,” Dorn said at a news conference.
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Dorn’s plan is pricier for several reasons, including his desire to reduce the number of students per class from kindergarten through high school. Present plans call only for lowering class sizes through grade 3.
But his proposal would not go as far as Initiative 1351, which voters passed in November. Under that initiative, schools are, over the next four years, required to lower the average class size in grades 4-12 to 25 students. Dorn recommends that class sizes average 24 students in grades 4-6, and 27 in grades 7-12.
Dorn, a former school principal and state lawmaker, also proposed that teacher salaries be set in statewide bargaining rather than district by district — with his position, the superintendent of public instruction, negotiate on behalf of the state’s 295 school districts.
His plan also calls for extending the timeline for reaching full McCleary funding to 2021 rather than the 2018 deadline set by the Supreme Court.
His proposals, some of which he has promoted before, received mixed reviews from some lawmakers.
State Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, the chief budget writer in the House, said Dorn’s plan has “brought up a couple of really important issues that need to get worked out.”
But, Dorn “has a different perspective on what the requirements for implementing McCleary are than the Legislature does,” he said. “And frankly, I think than the court does.”
The Washington Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, wasn’t enthusiastic either.
“On compensation, the things Randy Dorn has proposed are not what’s needed,” said Rich Wood, the union’s spokesman, saying that the state’s own committee on teacher compensation didn’t make such recommendations.
“What is called for in the state recommendations, are to increase educator compensation to be on par” with other comparable occupations, Wood said.
On class size, Wood said that Dorn’s plan, while it goes further than budget proposals by the governor, the House and the Senate, isn’t good enough.
“It continues to be a discussion about what can the Legislature get away with, as opposed to what does the Legislature need to do to provide the services.”
Dorn didn’t say how he would pay for his plan — but he and state Treasurer Jim McIntire have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to discuss that.
Lawmakers of both parties have repeatedly said that I-1351 — which didn’t identify how the state would pay for smaller class sizes — is simply too expensive to fund. Its estimated cost is at least $5 billion through 2019.
Further complicating Dorn’s vision is a Republican-controlled Senate that has continued to push back against revenue proposals proposed by Democrats.
Republicans have argued that the $3 billion in new revenue from existing taxes should be able to pay for education and other needs.
As part of reforming teacher compensation, Dorn also wants to limit how much school districts can raise in local school levies, which are now used to enhance the amount that the state provides for teacher salaries.
State Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, said in an interview last week that lawmakers are also working on several levy-reform proposals.
Dorn’s plan would also increase the number of librarians, school nurses, counselors, custodians and other support staff in each school and fund 10 professional-development days a year for each teacher.