Kagi proposes laws to ease financial burdens on schools

February 11, 2009

OLYMPIA—Citing extreme financial challenges facing school districts as the state wrestles with the worst budget crisis in a generation, state Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Shoreline, is proposing a pair of laws to reduce state-mandated financial and regulatory burdens on local schools, and to address the impacts of children being placed at Fircrest and other residential habilitation centers.

"If the state can't adequately fund schools due to the budget crisis, we can at least reduce some of the onerous mandates and cost burdens that are choking school finances and diverting local levy dollars away from their intended purposes," said Kagi.

One of the measures introduced by Kagi targets four heavy cost burdens on local schools across the state. House Bill 2108 seeks to:

• Direct the State Auditor to reimburse school districts and educational service districts for administrative costs caused by state audit requirements.
• Bar the State Board of Education from imposing new rules on heating, lighting and other environmental factors in school facilities without prior legislative approval.
• Block the state Superintendant of Public Instruction from imposing additional technology requirements on school districts unless they are specifically required by state or federal law.
• Suspend WASL mandates on student learning plans as well as WASL testing requirements related to social studies, the arts, health and fitness until after the start of the 2011 school year.

"Passing this law would immediately give local school districts more freedom to focus resources on local needs," said Kagi. "Given the severity of the budget crisis, it just makes sense to give more authority over local school budgets to the people who are on the front lines of education."

Kagi authored her bill after conferring with local school district officials, including Shoreline School District Superintendent Sue Walker and Northshore School District Superintendent Larry Francois.

Kagi's second proposal, House Bill 2113, would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide impact assistance that covers the actual state-mandated costs of serving students in residential habilitation centers such as Fircrest, which is located in Shoreline.

"We need to bring state reimbursements into line with the real costs of services to students in these centers," Kagi said.

"School districts cannot and should not continually make up the difference between what the state requires and what the state pays for educating children placed from around the state at Fircrest."

Kagi said her reforms are needed to protect the role and intended purpose of local school levies.

"People pass school levies to fund local priorities and supplement state funding for basic education. We do not pass them to pay for unfunded state mandates or unfunded state responsibilities," Kagi said.