The test scores may be up but school funding is way down.
That was the message at the State of the Schools speech at the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday at the Twin Lakes Golf and Country Club.
The briefing, given by Superintendent Tom Murphy, praised the school district for working on raising test scores and offering numerous academic options for students.
Many of the schools’ programs, including AVID, TAF Academy and Cambridge programs, are either groundbreaking for the area or exemplary programs that have garnered acclaim, according to Murphy. Despite numerous low-income and English as a second language students, Federal Way test scores have risen in the past decade.
“Fifty-three percent of our students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch,” Murphy said. “Yet, in student achievement, comparisons with all other districts of 2,000 students or more, our students perform as if our free and reduced-lunch percentage was 25.”
Federal Way, however, is a district that has not performed well on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test and is considered a school district in “improvement,” meaning the test scores need to go up.
Math in particular has always been problematic district-wide, though improvements have been made, Murphy said. Mathematically speaking, the funding for Federal Way has been an issue the district has raised in the recent years.
Federal Way is currently in the middle of a lawsuit against the state of Washington for fair funding. The district won their case, but the state has since appealed the decision.
“Withdrawl this appeal and fix the problem,” Murphy said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
This year, the state budget is cutting millions from the education funding, and Federal Way will be hit hard. Something Murphy is not pleased with.
“Article IX of the Washington State Constitution declares, ‘It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provisions for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste or sex,'” Murphy said. “I would ask that we not balance out state budget on the backs of the children of our state.”
Murphy urged that state legislators pay for education before anything else, including fully-funding special education, transportation and fair funding and to not cut funding for levy equalization, I-728 and I-72.
“Federal Way will lose more money with the cut in levy equalization than any other district, except Bethel, in King, Pierce and Snohomish County,” Murphy said, urging those in attendance to petition their lawmakers to reject the Governor Chris Gregoire’s budget.
