The Families and Education Levy organization wants residents of Magnolia to sign up for phone bank duty to help ensure the passage of Proposition No. 1, a levy that would temporarily boost property taxes to raise funds for Seattle Public Schools.
The organization has sent e-fliers to parents in Queen Anne and Magnolia asking for volunteers who can spend a few hours a day calling people and informing them about the levy. Students are welcome to participate and volunteers can even set up phone banks at their homes.
The levy which Seattle residents can vote for Tuesday, Nov. 8, would approve the collection of $231,562,000 in property taxes over seven years. The money would fund school readiness and early learning, academic achievement in elementary, middle and high schools. It would also support student health, the community partnership fund and research and evaluation programs. Details can be found by clicking here.
Needed times are:
11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29 at 402 Ninth Ave. N
5-9 p.m., Monday, Oct. 31 at 402 Ninth Ave. N
5-9 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 402 Ninth Ave. N
5-9 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 3 at 402 Ninth Ave. N
11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5 at 402 Ninth Ave. N
The Families and Education campaign headquarters are located at 402 9th Ave. N. in South Lake Union. For more information visit www.familiesandeducationlevy.org or call Kerry Cooley-Stroum at 206-910-1400 kcs@seanet.com or Dawn Bennett at 347-581-8021 msdawnbenett@gmail.com.
With so many people one paycheck away from losing their homes, parents unable to feed their children, and employment so high, should we really be raising the tax burden on Seattle families for programs that benefit so few? ?While its goals are noble, I am not so sure that this is the time or that these programs are the best way to accomplish the improvements they seek.
Agreed!?
This levy is DOUBLE the cost of the old one.? It would cost my household $1000 per year ?
money I simply don?t have to spare.? And
while the programs the levy funds might be well-intentioned, in these almost
two decades they?ve been in effect, the money spent hasn?t improved graduation
rates or test scores for the intended populations.
And finally: it?s the state?s constitutional responsibility,
not the city?s, to fund public education out of the general fund.? As long as Seattleites keep okaying line-item
initiatives like this one, the state won?t set aside the necessary funds.? Make the state do the work required of it, by
voting NO.
Wow — I look at this levy as an incredible investment in kids and families.
1. We can spend $1 today in early learning and save $4 down the road in K-12 funding. (That’s the conservative payoff of early learning investments; this levy helps get more high-poverty, at-risk kids enrolled in quality programs.)
2. Kids who fail classes in Seattle don’t have summer school. Which means they return for a 5th, or 6th year of high school. Seattle has success with extended graduation, but it is expensive. It’s much more cost savvy to get them timely intervention early on (levy funds tutoring) or an opportunity to make up a missing class (levy funds summer school) without making up a whole year.
And if those kids fail? Cost to society is $10,000 per drop out EVERY YEAR for life. (Cost comes from lost earnings, higher social support costs, and often?incarceration. Speaking of incarceration, the state spends about $6,500 to educate a student each year, vs. $35,000 to house an inmate.)
3. Blaine PTA endorsed? GREAT! I bet members there understand that this levy ALSO funds teen programs for the middle schoolers.
This isn’t the school levy (which now covers about 40 percent of Seattle school district’s budget, thanks to the $1 billion-and-growing in state cuts to K-12 schools). It’s a support program for students and families. It covers some things school funding SHOULD probably cover (I mean really, no summer school?) But these programs are making a difference — in the lives of kids today and in the pocketbooks of taxpayers for decades to come.
(And by the way, Washington ranks in the bottom 10 on per pupil funding. Throwing money at education and programs that support kids and families is not one of our sins.)
IF the levy-paid programs worked, I’d support them.? But Ramona, they don’t.? Over all these years with this exact levy (at half the cost) in place, the scores and graduation rates of the affected populations haven’t improved.? the programs are well-intentioned, but they simply don’t work.? So, no, throwing more money at the problem won’t work either.
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Let’s spend the money we do have properly. ?I’m not voting to give them even more money to misspend. ?It’s a proven fact nationally that the biggest budgets don’t mean the highest student achievement. ?Is this neighborhood blog endorsing this levy? ?Yes by the way, ?I am a very concerned parent with children in the public school system. ?
Blaine’s PTA voted to endorse the levy after a very one-sided presentation from a lobbyist in which she couldn’t answer any of the tough questions. ?Vote NO.
here is the?amount?of tax paid by property owners in WA 2010 not including levies $8,939,723,092… ?Thats Billions almost 9 ?and it excludes levies declared unconstitutional in accordance with: ?Hoppe vs. Kinnea.?
So that total in King County is ?3,541,731,248 again Billions and we have a national school rating that is lower than Mississippi…
Our State Supreme Court has?ruled that the state law makers ?are not correctly funding schools and are in?violation of state law.
WA State has a?Democratic ruled house of Rep ?and?Senate and Gov not Republican. ?The two party system is not working?
Read your?Ballot vote intelligently its more than a Right its a?Responsibility
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I am so glad to see some well intentioned and thoughtful posts on this subject.? I too believe WA State needs to bear the burden of properly funding K-12 education.? Leaving this to the whims of an levy election is unfair on many fronts, but particularly on the kids.??? Voting against the levy, and in the largest school system in the state, will send a strong signal to Olympia to get with it!?
Doubt it.? The State has already been asked to bear their share of the burden and they continue to make cuts.? See the newspaper today that more of the $2B shortfall is coming out of education?? Waiting for the State to do their part hasn’t happened for a long time.? Levy’s are the only way for the schools to get the money they need.
The levy supporters can?t provide any evidence that the last 20 years and $255 million dollars of levy programs have made progress toward fulfilling all of their wonderful promises. Now the people who have run these failed programs wants to double down on their failure with our tax dollars. Of course they?re making grander promises ?it will *ensure* that all children will graduate high school ready for college or career?. Seriously. They use the word ?ensure?. How believable is that?This is a hugely expensive proposition. The average homeowner will pay almost $900 in extra taxes over the 7 years. (nearly $2.00 per $1,000 of assessed value). See the NO campaign website?http://familiesagainstprop1.org/proptax.html?to get a better estimate of your own tax liabilityBesides which, although they try to distance this levy from the scandal-ridden school district and claim that the levy is run by the city, not the district — ?millions of the levy dollars are passed along by the city directly to the school district.