The following editorial originally appeared in The Seattle Times:
An inconvenient truth about local control of public schools is that, for better or worse, it places enormous financial responsibility in the hands of a few volunteers — school board members, who may have expertise with complicated spreadsheets but, most likely, do not.
Either way, these civic-minded folks are expected to hold a district’s paid staff accountable for their spending decisions. In an era of multimillion-dollar budgets — or, in the case of Seattle Public Schools, more than $1 billion — that’s a pretty big ask.
Schools run by grassroots community members may be the idealistic aim. But it isn’t always realistic.
Exhibit A: The Marysville School District, which is foundering in such dire financial straits that State Auditor Pat McCarthy has doubts about the district’s viability.
“This is the most alarming audit of a public school’s finances in 17 years,” McCarthy said in a press release, issued alongside an Aug. 5 report that found Marysville — located in Snohomish County, north of Everett — is essentially insolvent.
A healthy school district has money on hand to cover at least 60 days of expenses. In June 2023, Marysville had about 18 days’ worth. As of last week, the district had negative 11.6 days, according to McCarthy’s audit.
There are mechanisms to prevent such scenarios. But they don’t appear to be working very well.
For the first time in Washington history, five districts — including Marysville — are operating under “binding conditions,” an austerity status triggered when budgets are in the red. Another 19 are on a state “watch list” that shows financial problems looming.
And there may be more in trouble.
Seattle Public Schools, despite facing a $105 million deficit in 2023-24, didn’t even show up on the watch list the year before.
Traditionally, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has offered guidance, technical assistance and advocacy — but not oversight.
“We’re neither staffed nor funded to do that kind of proactive work,” spokeswoman Katy Payne said.
It’s past time to rethink this assignment.
The agency seems to agree. Payne said that next year, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction will ask the Legislature for funding to provide districts with more monitoring and support.
In the meantime, the state auditor’s office last week unveiled a new “Financial Intelligence Tool,” through which anyone can check the fiscal health of numerous government agencies, including all 295 of Washington’s school districts.
The tool automatically flags financial health trends that look “concerning.”
Currently, 182 school districts have at least one area that falls into that category.
