The Washington State PTA Board and the Washington Education Association, as well as many other pro-education groups, have endorsed the “No on I-1033” campaign because passage of this latest Tim Eyman proposal would significantly restrict the amount of funds available to our schools. It would lock in the budget cuts made to our schools in this current budget cycle.

Last year, the state cut funding to our school by $2 million. This year, we will still have at least that continuing $2 million reduction, plus a further $600,000 cut in our local levy. The amount we can collect in our levy is capped at a percentage of the funding we receive from state and federal sources, so a reduction in the amount received by the state automatically reduces the amount we can collect from our levy.

Our district administration, our PTAs and the MI Schools Foundation all worked extremely hard to fundraise last year in order to “Bridge the Gap.” The idea was that these reductions would be temporary and that we could call on individuals to donate in order to stave off teacher layoffs and higher class sizes. With a huge amount of effort, that fundraising secured $430,000. While that money certainly helped, it did not fully mitigate the effects of the unprecedented decrease in state funding. Our district has faced program reductions for the past four years straight and the effects are evident in our large class sizes today, the lack of adequate support personnel in the schools, and the increased pressure on our PTAs and School Foundation to fill the gaps.

Please join us in voting no on I-1033.

Aleta Finnila, VP of Advocacy, Mercer Island PTA Council

Mike Radow, President, Mercer Island Education Association