school funding

A federal judge in Boise today [Tuesday] ruled in favor of an initiative campaign that wants to require the state to devote more money to public schools.

An Idaho group that hopes to put a public school funding initiative on the November ballot is asking a federal judge for extra time to collect signatures.

“What we’re calling for is an extension of the deadline for collecting ballot initiative signatures and also for the permission to collect signatures online," said Reclaim Idaho's Luke Mayville.

Today on the Inland Journal podcast, we take a break from Spokane city council and mayoral candidate interviews to talk about state government. Sometimes, after legislative sessions end, state representatives and senators will do tours in their district and share what happened with constituents and reporters. Today, Representatives Jenny Graham and Mike Volz from the Sixth District are in our studio to give their perspectives about the session. We talk about education funding, about ghost bills and other topics.

The Spokane school board is holding a community budget forum tonight [Wednesday]. The forum is the district’s chance to explain to parents and teachers the district’s current fiscal situation.

The district issued layoff notices earlier this spring to about 300 employees. Since then the district received a little more money from the state, but it’s not known whether any of those people will brought back for next year and if so, how many.

Mead School District officials say it appears they won’t have to lay off any teachers as part of a plan to cut more than $11 million in spending.

School board president Carmen Green says administrators have been able to reduce the current workforce through early retirements, teachers taking long-term leave and other measures.

Today on the Inland Journal podcast, hard decisions made in Spokane’s Mead School District.

On Tuesday night, the Mead school board cut $11.3 million from the district’s budget. It’s a big hit for a district that serves a fairly affluent part of town. But it wasn’t quite as severe as the $12 million district officials thought they’d have to cut.

Spokane area school officials say they’re still digesting school funding changes adopted by the Washington legislature during its recently-finished session. They’re not sure yet whether or how those changes will affect the need to make spending cuts for the upcoming school year. 

Wednesday on the Inland Journal podcast, the debate about school levies in Washington. Last year, legislators shifted much of the tax burden for funding basic education from local property taxes to the state and limited how much local money school districts could raise. Now, school administrators are asking to ease the restrictions on local levy money. We’ll hear some of the arguments and talk with Spokane Superintendent Shelley Redinger. We'll also hear about how a Coeur d'Alene High School student's app is helping people who have trouble reading.

The Washington and Idaho legislatures go back into session next Monday. For most of us in our daily lives, this doesn’t mean much, except that the laws and policies adopted in Olympia and Boise trickle down to us at home.

It was a sea of red – red shirts and protest signs- at busy intersections and in Riverfront Park Wednesday. Teachers from Spokane and East Valley school districts spent their one-day walkout protesting against the legislature for not fulfilling school funding needs.