The Fight to Save Seattle’s Schools from a Legislative Raid
Seattle educators and school board officials are scrambling to block a state bill that would force the city’s education tax dollars to subsidize rural school districts.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Among those interested in the public schools of this city there is much feeling over House bill 36, introduced into the legislature by Representative Taylor of Pierce. Yesterday Mr. Frank J. Barnard, the superintendent of public schools, and Mr. H. V. Whitney, went to Olympia at the request of the board of education to oppose the measure. The bill aims a direct blow at the symmetry and effectiveness of the public school systems of Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane Falls. The effect of this measure is to remove from cities of over 10,000 inhabitants the exemption which allows them to devote revenues raised for school purposes to their own schools. In other words, such cities will be compelled to pool their general school fund with the remainder of the county. In the city of Seattle, last year, a tax of 4 mills was levied, and the tax in the country was four. If all taxes were paid, a revenue of $171,000 would be secured to the city for 1890-91. It is plain to be seen that the cities, if the present law is repealed, would be compelled continuously to maintain their own schools, and besides to pay a part of the cost of country schools. In Seattle the High school might have to be discontinued, and the tendency would be directly to lower all schools to the country standing.
“The intention is to have a uniform tax for schools levied all over the county by the commissioners... Seattle would be forced to abolish the High school and to cut down the forces everywhere.”
Debates over how tax revenues are shared between wealthy urban cores and rural surroundings remain a flashpoint in Washington state politics. Seattle’s 1891 struggle to control its own educational funding set a precedent for the ongoing tension between urban independence and regional fiscal responsibility.
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