The Associated Press
State schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson, speaking in the State Reception Room in Olympia on Wednesday, says lawmakers ought to consider a temporary tax increase.

School chief decries planned budget cuts

Terry Bergeson calls lawmakers' proposed austerity measures a 'recipe for disaster'

DAVID AMMONS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Thursday, March 7, 2002

OLYMPIA -- State school Superintendent Terry Bergeson says the Democratic Legislature's proposed budget cuts are a "recipe for disaster" and could stymie the state's progress on school reform.

Instead, she said, lawmakers should pass a temporary tax increase until the state can come up with a more stable and equitable long-term system to pay for government.

Bergeson acknowledged that the state is suffering the worst budget shortfall since the early 1970s, but said "that's no excuse" for failing to properly fund the public schools. Voters demanded that education be a budget priority when they overwhelmingly approved initiatives on class-size reduction and teacher pay, she said.

As lawmakers attempt to fill a $1.6 billion gap, education is on the cutting block, other than the basic-education grants, which are protected by the courts.

Education cuts

The Senate's budget proposal cuts $126 million in K-12, including $37 million by eliminating all three state-financed teacher planning days in the next school year, $19 million in lower state aid for local school staff, and $11.5 million by combining a variety of programs into a single block grant that is cut 25 percent.

Federal funds are used to replace some state dollars.

Senate budget Chairwoman Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said her budget cuts K-12 twice as deeply as Gov. Gary Locke proposed before the state's budget woes got $400 million worse. She said basic programs are maintained, though, and that teachers still will get their scheduled 3.6 percent pay boost.

But Bergeson said her fellow Democrats aren't doing right by schools. The loss of the planning days -- the equivalent of nearly a 2 percent pay increase -- and increased health care cost will eat up the entire pay boost for many teachers, she said. The state faces a teacher shortage and already is losing 40 percent of teachers within their first five years of teaching, she said.

The block grant approach will have the practical effect of killing some of the smaller programs, such as the Math Helping Corps and Nurse Corps, she said.

The planning days are essential for teachers, staff and principals to collaborate on education reforms, Bergeson said.

Tax increase

"We cannot and should undermine a decade of effort and gains for the children of our state because of the current fiscal realities," she said.

Bergeson said lawmakers should "take the hard votes" and pass a temporary tax increase, such as the three-tenths of a percent sales tax increase suggested by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam. A blue-ribbon tax structure committee, headed by attorney Bill Gates Sr., will propose a more stable long-term tax system this fall, she said.

On the Web:

- Senate Ways & Means: 2002 Supplemental Budget Proposals

- Senate Ways & Means Fiscal Updates 2002

- Washington State Legislature

- Washington State Treasurer

- Gov. Gary Locke

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The Olympian Copyright 2002

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