Were they lying to us?

For years, through politics, teacher strikes and court cases, we have heard that state lawmakers were underfunding schools. Then, with great fanfare, state leaders came together in 2017 and passed an historic bill that raised property taxes, reduced inequity and provided adequate funding for schools.

The law made two important changes in school funding. First, by raising taxes, it greatly increased state funding for all schools. Second, it increased fairness and reduced inequity between property-rich districts and property-poor ones by reducing local dependence on levies to fund schools.

Lawmakers rightly thought it was not fair that a child living in Seattle received thousands of dollars more for her education than a child living in Kettle Falls.

As a result, the state budget saw a massive increase in spending on schools. Funding soared by $9.3 billion, up 68% in just six years (inflation over the same period was under 10%). Today public school funding is over $14,500 per student, more than the tuition at most private schools.

The state supreme court blessed the plan, and the governor joined lawmakers of both parties in celebrating their achievement. Governor Inslee said, “This budget, at long last, meets our constitutional obligations to fully fund basic education, and addresses the responsibilities we have … to equitably fund our schools.”

Senator Christine Rolfes (D-Bainbridge Island), responding to a reporter who asked about students getting different funding in different zip codes, said, “We have fixed a lot of that problem. … We can’t eliminate all inequities, but we will have closed the gap significantly.”

Later, when voting for the bill, Sen. Rolfes said, “The future of our state is maintained with ample funding and the right policy to make sure that that funding is fairly distributed throughout the state and benefits every single child.” The majority of Democrats and Republicans agreed.

Now, some legislators want to repeal the 2017 law and re-introduce inequity and funding discrimination to public schools.

So when lawmakers passed the school equity bill, were some of them lying to us? It’s hard to say.

What we do know is that the push for inequity comes from lawmakers who represent the wealthiest districts in the state. Case in point is Senator Lisa Wellman (D-Mercer Island), who is sponsoring SB 5313, a bill to enhance the privilege of rich communities over poor ones.

SB 5313 would reward wealthy school districts like Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and Mercer Island, and punish poor districts. This bill would also hurt working families by calling for more property tax increases, on top of the one already imposed by the state.

Fiscal analysis shows SB 5313 would increase the tax burden on families by up to $3.9 billion, on top of the $50 billion in taxes Washingtonians pay now. Worse, the bill would once again introduce discrimination in school funding, disproportionately harming children in communities like modest-income Kettle Falls, compared to their peers in upscale Mercer Island.

School boards in some districts have put their budgets into deficit and want SB 5313 so they can get more money. This is to be expected. Some school board members always say they want more money, despite getting massive funding increases. In most districts, though, school officials manage funding increases more responsibly, and are keeping their budgets on a sound footing.

Right now lawmakers are being pressured to violate the commitment they made to education funding equity. They should resist. Instead, lawmakers should protect stable, fair and equitable school funding, and not give in to ideas that would privilege rich districts in ways that disproportionately harm children living in poor and modest-income areas of the state.

Liv Finne is the director of the Center for Education at Washington Policy Center.