Congressman takes in local school challenges

Congressman Dan Newhouse visited Lake Roosevelt Schools Tuesday, touring the building and learning about the challenges the school district faces, particularly financial issues.

Newhouse represents Washington's 4th Congressional District, which spans Central Washington from Oregon to Canada, including most of the Grand Coulee Dam area.

Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner and school board Chairman Rich Black showed the congressman around, and three members of Newhouse's staff joined the tour, taking notes.

Turner spoke with Newhouse about qualities of the school, including the large native American population and classes focused on native American culture, such as teaching the Salish language; the Pathways program, which gets students thinking and planning for their future; and the Alternative Learning Program, which helps improve the graduation rate.

Turner also spoke about a broad range of issues facing the district, including mental health, a shortage of bus drivers, and much more, particularly financial burdens.

One financial issue is linked to changes in state law affecting school levies, and how much money schools can levy on assessed property values within the district.

Turner explained a $600,000 annual loss to the district from what he said most school districts in the state see as "the levy swindle" enacted by the Legislature and impacting Grand Coulee Dam more because of non-taxable federal land.

While the district collects some federal "Impact Aid," it's not nearly enough to make up for a relative inability to tax so great that local taxpayers pay two and a half times as much as those in districts like Tonasket, Turner said.

The district has also tried to tap into another federal program that could help, but has been thwarted by Education Department procedures for claiming "federal lands" designation that ask for the assessed value at time of federal purchase - from the 1930s and '40s, a period from when records are scant - rather than the purchase price, which is known.

"I can't see why it can't be the purchase price," he said. "It seems like whoever wrote it to begin with didn't really think that one through, or didn't think about that being an issue. If they change the language to say 'assessed valuation OR purchase price,' then it would be a slam dunk."

Newhouse listened attentively, saying something occasionally on the topic or asking questions for clarification.

After the discussion, the congressman gave a brief interview to The Star.

"A lot of the challenges that come naturally to a small community are kind of accentuated by the challenges of having the federal presence of the Grand Coulee Dam here," Newhouse said. "I have two reservations in the 4th District: the Yakima and the Colville. The issues are similar in the Yakima area as well. The amount of Impact Aid dollars that are made toward school districts and other tax districts just isn't adequate, that's the bottom line. It doesn't cover the full cost of what normally would be received off those lands. So communities like this feel the pinch. That's always a struggle in Washington D.C., to try to boost up that number."

Passing a bill in Congress to fix the issue "takes a long time," Newhouse said. "But that's always an option. We can make changes quicker through agencies in some of the rules and regulations that are in place, sometimes that's, I won't say easier, but maybe a faster thing. You look at the implications of what the change of a few words would have, because you're talking about national; it would impact a lot of people."

"There's always dollars associated with those changes," Newhouse continued. "If you make a change that benefits one school district, others are going to say 'we want some of that too.' So you have to look at all the different aspects as much as you can. It's hard to anticipate everything, and then you've got to convince people that this is the thing to do."