Letter to the Editor: Vote Yes for Shoreline Schools by August 5, 2025
Monday, June 9, 2025
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Public education is a shared investment. Even if your family is not a past, current, or future public school attendee, we all benefit from an educated society. Shoreline and LFP voters have a long history of supporting public education. That support is one reason our cities consistently attract young families.
According to OSPI data, Shoreline SD outperforms the state in both graduation rate (91.8% vs.82.8%) and averages for college and grade level learning in English, Math, and Science. Shoreline SD is teaching the essentials and doing it better than most.
Yet, our district is struggling to meet basic needs. Since 2020, gaps in state funding have cost our district $132M to fund vital services like special education, utilities, insurance, transportation and staffing. Our public schools are dealing with rising costs from inflation, years of underfunding by state lawmakers, and are at risk of losing federal dollars.
Shoreline SD faces a $6.5M deficit. The estimated $7.25M over two school years would provide vital support amid financial and political challenges. A yes vote supports students of all backgrounds and helps prevent staff cuts, larger classes, and fewer extracurriculars. If passed,the tax rate will be lower in 2026 ($3.13) than in 2025 ($3.21) per $1,000, due to broader tax distribution from property growth in Shoreline and LFP.
Multiple internal and external audits of Shoreline SD have all concluded that without an increase in revenue, drastic cuts must be made. Our government should fulfill their constitutional duty to provide ample education for all children. Until then, a levy is the best option to protect Shoreline and LFP schools.
Malorie Larson
in collaboration with Jenny Skytta and Sarah Crowder
Shoreline
Shoreline
Posts
5 comments:
Perhaps you'd have more money if you focused on getting rid of DEI and let parents parent their own children.
Always the same conclusion, raise taxes, spend more vs. look at ways to use the public's money more efficiently. As prices for everything continue to spiral and increase out of control this is the last thing we need to do. Metro wants more, schools want more, companies and government want more. Unless taxpayers and consumers say no to the greed our pockets will continue to be picked until they are empty !
Can someone give an explanation of why, after spending a year trying to determine which school should be closed, they dumped the whole idea and now they want to raise taxes. We have fewer kids. It follows we need fewer schools not more money. We need an explanation.
No thank you. These cuts you talk about are just decreases in the rate of growth not real cuts. A zero rate of growth means you have what you had last year; make it work! I did not have raises some years, why should you be guaranteed a raise? Schools are too bloated as it is. Too much emphasis on sports and not enough on basic education. You get enough of our tax dollars and the quality of the product is decreasing. Why do you think private schools are booming.
If the Shoreline School District is doing so great, why are so many parents investing in private tutoring? Or are students performing better than other school districts because parents can afford private tutoring?
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