Lottery may help fund schools

OLYMPIA - Washington has a duty to fully fund children's education, according to the state Supreme Court. But the court didn't say where those funds would come from.

State legislators are considering the lottery as an answer to the court's McCleary decision, with a bill that would put $700 million toward school construction.

The funds would be backed by lottery bonds, and allow schools to build more classrooms for kindergarten through third-grade.

"With the McCleary decision to lower the class size and have all-day kindergarten, and other decisions around that, many of our districts are bursting at the seams," Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, said, who sits on the house's education committee.

The house passed the bill Tuesday with a vote of 90 to 7. If it becomes law, HB 2797 could provide for 2,000 classrooms' construction, said main sponsor Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish.

Legislators have to "put the pedal to the metal" to meet the court's timeline of fully funding K-12 education by 2018, he said.

"It would be disingenuous to say we're going to do something about McCleary, and not have the classrooms in place," Dunshee said.

Pam Kruse, a teacher from Franklin-Pierce school district, spoke at the press conference on behalf of the bill last month. She teaches remedial math.

"My program exists because of large class sizes," Kruse said. Her school was built for 600 students but currently holds more than 1,000, she said.

Dunshee noted many districts, particularly in Eastern Washington, have trouble passing school bonds. His bill would not require a local match of funds.

"It will free up money for those districts that can't get their bonds passed," Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, said.

Schools need more classrooms to have smaller class sizes, he noted.

"I'd prefer we weren't bonding it for 20, 30 years because that increases our debt servicing costs, but I don't see a third alternative out there," Manweller said.

Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, said he was concerned the measure circumvents the state's debt limit, and voted against it.

Bonds are an unpredictable source of funding, Condotta said.

"We are not diverting money to education, we're diverting more debt to education," he said.

Warnick, who has emphasized her concern for the state's debt, said she voted in favor of the bill because the lottery was originally meant to help fund education.

"Many of our town halls, many letters questioned why we're not using lottery dollars to fund education," she said.

The measure would only provide for kindergarten through third-grade facilities, but that's where the state "gets more bang for their buck," Rep. Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, said, a member of the house education committee.

That's when students are learning fundamentals such as reading, which affects the rest of their success, he said.

Hawkins thought the bill could "tremendously" benefit school districts such as Eastmont, in his hometown.

Eastmont Superintendent Garn Christensen said they'd add several classrooms if they had the funds. He said how many they'll need depends on how McCleary's smaller class-size requirement is interpreted.

"If we have the directive, but we don't have the facilities, we can't meet those needs," he said.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where a public hearing was held in the ways and means committee today.