State Legislature Inflicts a Triple Whammy on Low Income Students
In previous articles, we explained that Washington State is facing a school construction crisis – with a need to build more than $50 billion in new public schools. In this article, we will look at the impact on a particular school district when the State legislature refuses to honor their constitutional obligation to build urgently needed schools. The school district we have chosen is the Highline School District. The impact on these students from the failure of our state legislature to build urgently needed schools has been devastating. We begin with a brief explanation of our State Constitution.
In 1889, the drafters of our Washington State Constitution understood the importance of education to the future of our economy and the future of our democracy. They therefore made the funding of public schools the “paramount” or most important duty of the State legislature. These same wise people had seen how school districts in other states had turned into a system of “rich schools in rich communities and poor schools in poor communities.” They therefore added a second lesser known clause to our State Constitution calling for a “uniform system of public schools.” In recent Supreme Court rulings, the Court has criticized the legislature not only for failing to comply with the full funding of public schools, but also for relying on local levies – which are unconstitutional precisely because they lead to a system of rich schools that can pass local levies and school construction bonds versus poor school districts that cannot pass local levies and school construction bonds.
All of which brings us to the subject of Highline High School. Highline High School is located south of Seattle - just 3 miles from Seatac Airport. It opened in 1924. So it is now about 91 years old and in need of replacement. As was reported in the local news lately, Highline High School now suffers from problems with rats, mold and a host of other health problems. It does not comply with the health code or the earthquake code. In the event of a major earthquake, most of its 1,300 students and their teachers would be killed or injured.
Here is a sign posted on one of the doors at Highline High School:
Recognizing these problems, the Highline School Board attempted to pass a school construction bond to replace the high school in November 2014. When this was defeated, they put it back on the ballot for February 2015 – when it was defeated for a second time. No one opposed to the school bond argued that the high school was not in need of replacement. Instead, they argued that they could not afford it. This fact is supported by the OSPI Property Tax Report which shows that school related property taxes in the Highline School District more than double school related property taxes in the Seattle School District. ($5.66 per thousand versus $2.55 per thousand). This means that for a $400,000 home, the annual school related property tax in Highline is $2,264 versus only $1,020 in Seattle). This is on top of all the other property taxes that are also higher in the Highline School District. http://www.k12.wa.us/safs/PUB/LEV/1415/2010r.pdf
The cause of this huge and unfair difference in school related property taxes is that the Highline School District is a “bedroom” community without a lot of commercial property. Therefore, there is much less property to tax in Highline than there is in Seattle. As a consequence, the amount of property per student is much less in Highline than in Seattle. To be precise, according to OSPI report 1061, Seattle has a per State Legislature Inflicts a Triple Whammy on Low Income Students: