Judge says state isn’t properly funding K-12
In a bombshell ruling that comes as Olympia deals with a deep budget gap, King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick on Thursday held that Washington state is failing its constitutional mandate to adequately finance basic education for the state’s one million public school students.
The long-awaited decision came in a lawsuit brought by a group of school districts, parents, teachers and community leaders who asserted that the state relies too much on local special property tax levies to support the basics of K-12 education. More than 30 years ago, the courts held that the Constitution’s reference to education being the state’s “paramount duty” means providing stable and ample financial support for the basics.
Erlick noted some progress, but concluded:
“This court is left with no doubt that under the state’s current financing system the state is failing in its constitutional duty to make ample for provision for the education of all children.”
There was no timetable for compliance, or a direct roadmap. And Governor Gregoire said she and Attorney General Rob McKenna, with input from the Legislature, will decide whether to appeal.
The decision has no immediate pricetag for lawmakers to consider during this current budget-driven 60-day session. Legislators and the Governor are dealing with a projected shortfall of $2.6 billion.
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Washington State Schools & Universities Can Save Money By Contracting Out Food Services
A new report says that Washington State public schools & universities can save significant amounts of funding by partnering with professional services firms to handle or manage food or dining services
Seattle, Wash. – A new report from the Washington State Education Funding Coalition indicates that Washington State public schools and universities can save anywhere from 20%-40% by having professional on-site services companies handle or manage their dining or food services.
With the State of Washington projecting a $2.6 billion budget deficit in 2010 (following a $8 billion budget deficit in 2009), the funding that the State of Washington provides to its public schools and public universities will continue to decrease. The rapidly declining state financial support for schools and universities is putting an increasing amount of pressure on Washington State public schools and higher education institutions to find ways to reduce costs to make up for the declining direct state support. Consequently, many school districts and colleges have announced layoffs of teachers and/or instructional staff to help impact actual or anticipated budget deficits.
While these challenges are real, there are also some promising opportunities to create new business solutions to help address them.
As a result, the report from the Washington State Education Funding Coalition recommends that public schools and universities in Washington State strongly consider utilizing professional on-site services firms to handle or manage non-instructional services (such as dining and food services) because it will allow schools “to focus both their funding and their expertise on their most important task: providing their students with a strong education, while leaving their supporting services to professional companies to handle.”
The Washington State Education Funding Coalition’s report cites several examples of how public school districts and universities in the U.S. have already benefitted from working with professional on-site services firms. For example, a public university partnered with a professional on‐site services company to provide purchasing and culinary standards support to their dining program and, with just 20% of their current purchasing analyzed, they were able to save more than 14% in purchasing cost in year one. In another situation, a public school district partnered with a professional on‐site services company to provide school lunches and through active marketing and parent engagement, they were able to generate a 15% increase in school lunch revenue.
For a synopsis of the report, please go to the following link (http://www.mediafire.com/?23jzdjz1im3).
This “news” article is BS! You can do the data yourself to see that you won’t really save money going with contract management in Washington State as statistically it is not happening. .0035% of contractors break even while 4.6% of self op does. Compare losses to revenue and contractors fall in at 13% while self op was only 11%. This is a paid for news item that is inaccurate, slanted and totally untrue when it comes to contractors being better than self op financially in Washington State. You should be embarrassed at this paid advertising disguised as news and pull it. Do the official math yourself. For Washington data go to – http://www.k12.wa.us/BulletinsMemos/bulletins2009.aspx select B008-09 Attach 2
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