Last Friday, the Council's special committee considering renewal of the Families and Education Levy took testimony from two middle school principals and a member of the citizen committee studied the effectiveness of the current Levy, among others. It was compelling and, for me, emotional. These good people are engaged every day with Seattle's schoolchildren. They believe in them and want them to succeed. Watch their testimony at the following links—
Jeff Clark, principal of Denny International Middle School in West Seattle.
Andhra Lutz, principal of Mercer Middle School in Beacon Hill.
Greg Wong, attorney for former public school teacher, member of the Citizen Advisory Committee that prepared the Levy proposal before the Council.
The Council will vote in March to place a renewal of the Families and Education Levy on the November ballot. So far, the focus of our discussion has centered on the size of the tax measure—$231 million collected over seven years, or approximately $33 million per year. This size of a levy will cost the owner of an average assessed value home in Seattle ($462,000) about $124 in the first year (2012), rising to about $126 in the last year (2018).
Over the seven-year life of the Levy, the average homeowner will pay slightly more than $10 per month, or about the cost of a movie ticket at a Seattle theater.
You can read my previous blog posts on this topic here.