From selling ads for school buses to freezing pay increases for teachers, Olympia’s budget crisis has brought forward both gimmicky solutions and unbearable decisions.

While next year’s budget is still up in the air, the Legislature is beginning to bring proposals forward that would rock the Washington’s education system.

The talks paint a picture of the Legislature’s priorities and how deep they’re willing to cut into education.

“There’s a thought out there that if it’s inside basic education, it’s safe,” said Jake Kuper, Issaquah School’s financial Chief. “Given these times, what is basic education is up for grabs.”

There are two sets of budgets lawmakers are trying to balance this session, this year’s and the next biennium.

So far this year, lawmakers went back to their budget once, which meant a $1 million loss to the Issaquah School District.

The senate and the house passed initial proposals Feb. 4 for a second mid-year cut, which could be anywhere between a $750,000 to $460,000 budget reduction for Issaquah.

It could differ so widely, because the Senate wants to cut less from education, focusing instead on state employee salaries.

The situation gets gloomier for the biennium.

Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed budget would reduce education by $2.2 billion – a $3.2 million loss for Issaquah.

Lawmakers are debating her proposals now, but nothing is expected to take shape until March, when they have a better idea of how much money they’ll get.

No step increases

Probably the most controversial proposal comes from the governor’s biennium budget, which proposes freezing step increases for teachers.

It would prevent those who earn masters degrees or who get nationally board certified from getting pay increases.

“That’s huge for teachers,” said Issaquah School District spokesperson Sara Niegowski.

Other than experience, the most common way for teachers to improve their salary is through education.

“Do you fund the step increases and cut teachers, or do you not fund the step increases and keep teachers?” Sen. Steve Litzow, who represents Squak Mountain and is the Republican education lead.

The governor’s budget hammers the certification program, that helps pay for the $3,000 process and rewards teachers with a $5,000 pay increase.

Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-North Bend, is in favor of pay increases for teachers who earn their national boards, a proven program for improving teaching in the classroom.

He opposed offering more money for those who earn masters degrees, pointing to a legislative study that found advanced degrees don’t improve the quality of education.

Litzow put forward a bill that would also enable principals to layoff teachers without having to use seniority.

Often the younger most energetic teachers get axed first, he said. “We want to be able to give the principal more flexibility.”

Gimmicks and distractions

While the difficult decisions press, many legislators have spent their time trying to skirt the problem, said Anderson, “We’re not embracing reforms to get through the problem, what we’re doing is coming up with gimmicks to get around the problems.”

The gimmicks begin this year with a proposal to hold off final payments to school districts by a few days, pushing the “bill” into the next fiscal year.

The benefit is that it helps lawmakers meet the legal requirement to have a balanced budget, with about $250 million “savings.” The downside is that it means the money has to come from next year’s budget.

“Keep kicking the can down the road doesn’t help anybody,” Litzow said. “The economy is not going to come roaring back anytime soon.”

Arguably another distracting bill is a proposal to sell ads for buses, including those on the inside aimed at children.

It’s only expected to make about $700,000, for the entire state – pocket change, some say.

The proposal was met with positive comments from several members of the senate education committee, who claimed it could be used to encourage student education.

“That’s one of those really lame ideas by people who want to avoid the bigger issues,” Anderson said. “School buses are meant to get kids to school safely, they are not meant to sell products.”

Levy equalization

The basic idea behind levy equalization was to have a system so kids from rich and poor areas got the same amount of funding.

It’s now riddled with bureaucracies.

Once a district gets money from the program, it does everything to hold on. So there are a number of unfair and unusual situations, among them that Spokane gets any money at all, Issaquah’s Kuper said.

“How do we fix the levy program in general?” Litzow said. “It’s going to be painful.”

It’s likely to see some level of cuts, he said.

Issaquah doesn’t receive equalization money, but it’s concerned that if it’s pulled, lawmakers will propose other ideas for leveling the playing field, Niegowski said.

There is always the fear that the state will reduce how much money districts are allowed to collect from their levies. If it did limit districts like Issaquah, it would in theory help level the playing field, she said.

“We support levy equalization, as long as we have the ability to collect our local levy,” Kuper said.

Neither Litzow nor Anderson have heard talks about limiting levy dollars to equalize districts, but everything is on the table.

“It’s a crisis situation,” Anderson said. “We don’t want to damage our school systems, but big changes have to happen.”

Celeste Gracey can be reached at 425-391-0363, ext. 5052.