Budget and Finance Team
Budget and Finance Team Members:
On June 30th, three of the four team leaders met with Larry and Oriana to discuss how the four teams were operating in order to insure we weren’t duplicating efforts. At that meeting we discussed the need to provide additional background to members on all four teams so everyone could operate with the same information. Christie Perkins, Special Ed Coalition, suggested that an analysis done by WEA lobbyist, Randy Parr provided a section by section interpretation of the strengths and weaknesses of the bill (albeit from a WEA perspective.) I am attaching that analysis. If your organization has done similar work, please forward it so we can share all perspectives. Pages 4, 5 and 7 are of particular importance to our team as they relate to our second task below regarding prototype schools.
We’re still waiting on a date confirmation from Ben Rarick and Mary Kenfield, from the House staff. We have asked them to create a matrix for our next meeting of the prototype school funding model as it was originally proposed, as it was discussed by Washington Learns and the Basic Education Finance Task Force and as it was outlined in HB 2261 in order to see if there are differences from its original conception to its current form.
HB-2261 Analysis referred to above.
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At our meeting on June 18th, the Budget and Finance Team developed a two part work plan:
REVENUE FOR EDUCATION:
MONITOR THE WORK OF TAX INITIATIVE COALITION: An ad hoc coalition of organizations and individuals informally called the Burbank/Gates Sr. group, have been meeting to discuss tax reform initiative possibilities. The group has reached some consensus on an income tax and will be conducting polling to determine if an initiative would be viable on the 2010 ballot. Earlier polling has indicated the public’s willingness to increase taxes for education and so the discussion of the group has, to date, suggested that public education might be the focus of any new revenue generated by the initiative. The group intends to make its decision by the end of 2009.
Rather than proposing new revenue packages ourselves, the Budget and Finance Team will be monitoring the work of the coalition who has the resources to fund polling and potentially the funding and campaign expertise necessary for such an initiative. The League of Education Voters and WEA are both part of the coalition and are also represented on the Budget and Finance Team and will report out at Team meetings.
FUNDING FOR EDUCATION:
CONDUCT WESTSOUND SCHOOL DISTRICT FOCUS GROUPS ON THE PROTOTYPE SCHOOLS FUNDING MODEL: HB 2261 outlines a prototype schools funding model that changes the traditional school funding formulas and bases the instead, on minimum staffing and non-staff costs to operate schools of a particular size and with particular types and grades of students. See pages 5-7 of House Bill Report at link below:
The Budget and Finance Team wants to test out the practical realities of the prototype funding model by havin informal focus group teams from school districts consider the model and provide feedback that legislators/policymakers can use to make adjustments while the prototype model is still being fully developed. We propose three such meetings:
1. Larry Seaquist will request that Ben Rarick from the House Operating Budget Staff meet with our Budget and Finance Team. Ben is responsible for costing out the prototype funding model. The Team wants to hear how the components are being costed out and what the legislative process/timeline will be to implement the model. The Budget and Finance Team will comprise the first informal focus group.
2. August: Teams of administrators, school board members, union representation and building principals from 5-6 Westsound school districts will meet to review and provide feedback about the components of the prototype school funding model.
3. September: Crossroads will review and provide feedback about the components of the model.
The next meeting of the Budget and Finance Team will be scheduled once we have potential meeting dates with Ben Rarick.
Ann Randall,
WEA Olympic Council – Budget And Finance Team Leader
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Hello Judy, Laura, Christie, George, Bob, Kathryn and Peg:
I have offered to be team leader for the Vitamin E Budget and Finance Group. A week after our meeting, I’m beginning to realize how daunting the task will be. But I see a secondary goal of this team as well….to see if we can come together on a topic I know we all believe in, after a legislative session that saw our organizations at odds with each other. Because I know most of you well and have known you for a long time, I think its possible that we accomplish both goals. To get us started, here are my initial thoughts:
GROUP COMPOSITION:
I’d like to keep our group small because we can operate more efficiently, but think we need some additional expertise. I’ve asked Derek Kilmer to join us which he’s enthusiatically agreed to do. I think we need a couple of school district budget directors who understand the funding issues from the school district budget level. I’m going to ask Chuck Cuzetto, the Finance Director, from the Peninsula School District to join us; largely because Peninsula is a district who relies almost exclusively on state and levy funding. If you have ideas about other people we could invite to join us, even if they might be a one-time resource, respond with suggestions and issue an invitation to them.
GROUP MEETINGS:
Some of us get to do this for a living so can meet during the week, but others have jobs we’ll need to work around and so we may need to consider evening/weekend meetings. George and Christie, who are valuable assets, have longer commutes to get to meetings. We can do some work online and I have the capacity to set up call-in conference calls. I suspect, despite a calendar clearing committment made at the meeting, we all have some summer plans, but I hope we might be able to include ed finance reading material in the stack of summer novels we planned on getting to during our summer plans. Are there dates/times between June 17th and 21st that you are available to meet for an initial session to lay out a work plan?
RESOURCES:
Some work on education finance has taken place already, so initially, you should familiarize ourselves with their efforts.
1. The Full Funding Coalition
http://www.fullfundingcoalition.org/
2. The Basic Education Finance Task Force
http://www.leg.wa.gov/joint/committees/bef/
If there are other documents we should be reading, please reply to all with a link.
Team Leader – Anne Randall