Over the weekend, the Seattle Times took a good look at the wide variance in teachers' salaries across the state. The analysis shows that most of the difference is in the amount contributed by local levies — a fundamental issue, as Crosscut's John Stang has been writing — in holding up a budget agreement in the Washington Legislature this month. The state Supreme Court's McCleary ruling of 2012 determined that the state doesn't provide enough of districts' education funds. Eighty-one percent of the average teacher's salary is contributed by the state. The other 19 percent comes from local levies, and is supposedly intended to compensate for extra time, responsibility and incentive, although the court noted that the practice might be more about paying cost-of-living pay hikes to teachers in the wealthier districts.
The problem, notes Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, is that "there's a fundamental inequity ... the state has pushed its responsibilities back onto the school districts." Weathier districts are able to raise more, and poorer districts suffer from insufficient funding. Says Dammeier: "That’s a fairness issue.”
