Education advocates

The Legislature’s strongest advocates for education are expected today to largely remove themselves from the debate over K-12 funding a mere six weeks into the session. Before the Education Committee takes this step by presenting a budget recommendation to the Appropriations Committee, its members should consider the number of unresolved education issues.

Like the funding formula. Or money for special education, or for renovations and construction. The governor wants a couple of million dollars to train teachers for Learning Results. A legislator wants $1.5 million to purchase school buses.

Though the committee is expected to present a budget for General Purpose Aid to Education (GPA) significantly higher than the King administration’s, the 6 percent increase over each of the next two years could still be inadequate depending on how the formula is changed. There is growing consensus that the gimmicks added during the last decade need to come out and that a honest attempt is made to meet the state’s statutory funding requirement of 55 percent of the total.

The Education Committee is in the best position to balance formula changes with funding levels and a multitude of other considerations, but the pace of the session, apparently agreed to by both parties and the governor, reduces its influence. It is also difficult on the public. GPA, at about $600 million a year, is the single largest state expenditure, yet the committee held but one public hearing on the issue — about as much attention as was given the proposal for making wintergreen the state herb.

The speeded-up process could be particularly damaging this session, just as the public’s understanding of the complex funding formula has deepened sufficiently to catch lawmakers trying to evade required funding levels. If the Education Committee passes off GPA, Appropriations will be left with a necessarily large budget that arrived with limited debate. It will be asked to defend the increase without the evidence that multiple public hearings produce.

The danger is that the education budget gets cut and lawmakers, once again, force property taxpayers to absorb the shortfall. It needs defenders against a state government that too easily passes costs down to the local level.