Yesterday in Olympia the House Finance Committee looked at how public schools are funded, here in Washington and nationwide. Committee staff prepared in-depth reports with lots of information (the Research Council in 2013 published a report on on K-12 financing, comparing Washington’s funding to other states’. You can read that here). Some highlights:

• Washington differs significantly from the U.S. as a whole on sources of K-12 revenue, with more coming from the state and less from the local level.

• Nationally, over the past 20 years the percentages of state and local revenues have remained steady. In Washington, they have changed significantly, with the percentage of state revenues shrinking and of local revenues increasing.

• Local Maintenance & Operation levies (for the day-to-day running of schools) as a percentage of school districts’ revenue has varied widely over the past 40 years, with a high of more than 30% in 1974-75, to a low of less than 10% in 1980-81 (an M&O levy lid law took effect in 1979), and gradually tending to increase since then.

• Statewide, school districts have vastly different M&O property tax rates and corresponding collections, depending on property values in the district.

• Finally, there’s a breakdown of all the taxes making up state general-fund revenues, showing the sales tax, B&O tax and property tax in the top three – with the sales tax ahead by far.