Proposed Cuts to the WRC

This is a long post with a lot of information, so I’ll break it down into the following segments:

• The Situation
• What will happen?
• What now?

The Situation

As many of you may be aware by now, from media coverage and perhaps other avenues the State of Washington is experiencing difficult budget challenges. The Washington Reading Corps (WRC) is funded by both federal and state funds. Following the special legislative session in December and the release of the 2011-13 Governor’s budget before the holidays, the WRC was reduced to 50% of it’s funding for the current program year and eliminated completely from the 2011-13 budget. This is disheartening and disappointing news to all of us closely associated with and committed to the WRC.

Although we have seen the cut from the Governor’s budget in previous years (and have subsequently been refunded thanks to legislative support), this is the first time that the WRC was cut in the middle of the program year.

The Washington Service Corps is looking at all possible options to continue the current program year for the WRC. There are many issues that need to be considered and information gathered so sound and careful decisions can be made.

The exact language in the 2011 supplemental budget (link below) is:

160. ELIMINATE READING CORPS – The Reading Corps program provides grants to schools with low reading scores to provide student tutoring through the use of AmeriCorps and VISTA members. The budget assumes elimination of remaining funding for Fiscal Year 2011, a reduction of 50 percent.

Link: Under Early Action Supplemental as Passed Legislature 12/11/2010, choose the Summary. The WRC is listed as item 160. http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/detail/2010/so2010p.asp

What will happen?

At this point we do not know for sure what the future of the WRC will be.  As of right now, our understanding of the situation informs us that we could proceed under any of the following three scenarios:

• First Scenario: Be fully refunded by the state legislature for the remainder of the 2011 program year. It is not clear at this point that the WRC would return for the 2011-12 school year.
• Second Scenario: The Washington Service Corps is able to find alternative funding that will allow our members to serve through May or June 2011 in order to finish the school year and get as close to their 1700-hour requirement as possible. The Service Corps is currently feeling confident that members will be able to make it to the end of the school year.
• Third Scenario: The WRC runs out of funding in February and our members would be exited in March 2011.

Again: We do not know which of these scenarios will happen.  While we like to remain hopeful for a complete program year, we are preparing for the possibility that our members will be ending their service term earlier than their scheduled July 2011 exit.

Again, we want to convey that the Washington Service Corps is pursuing every avenue to sustain the WRC through as much as the program year as possible. But it may take a bit of time to fully determine timeframes.

What now?

If you are a current or former member or Site Supervisor of the NWWRC and would like to share your feelings around the importance of this program, you are welcome to submit a post to us (email your draft to russell@servenorthwestwa.org).

We also encourage you to go to http://skagitcap.org/page/Community-Action-E-News-Feed.aspx and read more about the proposed budget cuts to other programs at Skagit County Community Action Agency.  You will find a resource there on how to contact your legislators if that is something you would like to do.

You may also contact your state legislator by following this link: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx.