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“Levy swap” proposals surface

The Seattle Times has a story about three legislative proposals to reduce reliance on local school property tax levies that emerged on Wednesday: State lawmakers Wednesday put forth three competing proposals to address part of a court mandate for K-12 education that would reduce schools’ reliance on local tax levies. … The three tax-levy proposals […]

Latest In Focus episode

Education roundup

The AP reports that some are now estimating that the cost of complying with the McCleary decision on education funding could be in the ballpark of $6 billion. That number includes not only K-3 class size reduction, full day kindergarten, and materials, supplies and operating costs, but also takes into account that . . . […]

President drops 529 tax proposal; GET program dodges a bullet

This week President Obama decided to drop his State of the Union proposal to tax earnings from 529 plans. These plans are a tax advantaged way to save for college — distributions from the accounts are not taxed when used for educational purposes. (Washington’s GET program is one of them; we wrote about the program […]

New brief: Higher Education Policy and the State Budget

We have a new policy brief today on Washington’s higher education system.

Reframing the education funding debate: Time to move the goalposts?

Give former state Sen. Jim Kastama credit for his op-ed in today’s Seattle Times. Kastama says what few others have said publicly. He takes a look at the legislative history of ESHB 2261, the legislation setting school funding goals that have become the state Supreme Court’s standard for full funding of basic education in the […]

Seattle Times on education, transportation, and Inslee's budget proposal

Education and transportation look to be main areas of work for the Legislature in the upcoming session. Over the weekend, the Seattle Times had a few interesting items on these topics, in light of Gov. Inslee’s 2015-17 budget proposal. First, regarding the governor’s transportation plan, the paper points to a letter from state Treasurer Jim […]

Governor proposes $2.3 billion education package, doesn't fund I-1351 class size reduction

Gov. Jay Inslee launched his extended budget rollout by focusing on education. This is, of course, the fun part of the rollout, talking about what the new spending will buy before having to get to the grit of new taxes. It’s, well, let’s just use the governor’s own characterization, Inslee proposes boldest new efforts in […]

State budget must invest wisely in education: Yes to STEM, No to I-1351 Class Size Measure

This week Gov. Jay Inslee rolls out his 2015-2017 budget proposals. Education funding will take center stage, driven by the state Supreme Court’s McCleary mandate and voter-approved (narrowly) class size reduction Initiative 1351. While I-1351, which adds $4.7 billion in new spending over the next four years, is clearly unaffordable, lawmakers are expected to add […]

Battle over education waivers continues here; Oklahoma waiver reinstated. Higher education fighting back.

The Associated Press reports that the coming legislative session will likely feature a continuation of the No Child Left Behind battles that cost districts control of some $38 million in federal funding. Here’s the crux: At issue during the 2014 legislative session was whether to require that student scores on statewide tests be used as one […]