Advocates Ask For Clarification That Education Levy Won’t Pay For Cops In Schools

The upcoming Families, Education, Preschool, Promise Levy (FEPP) renewal is raising questions about how the City of Seattle wants the Seattle Police Department to interact with Seattle Public Schools. Unclear to what degree SPD may benefit from the proposed $235 million in funding for school safety, public commenters at Monday’s public hearing urged the council to reject funneling education levy dollars into the SPD’s already bloated budget. 

Oliver Miska, a Seattle Public School educator and advocate, said in public comment Monday evening that educators like him feel “deeply concerned” about rumors that the levy renewal may fund the return of cops to schools when the City ought to invest in alternative safety measures.

“We have organizations leading school safety in the south end and it is about time we build capacity for these organizations that are here today, like Community Passageways and Choose 180,” Miska suggested. “These are Black-led alternatives to police that will keep every student safe and not criminalized.” 

Advocates worry that the FEPP will sneak in funding to bring back SROs. In 2009, Seattle Public Schools teamed up with SPD to put SROs on campuses as part of the Seattle Youth Violence Initiative. But in 2020, as the public became more wary of the police and their ability to keep communities safe, students, parents, teachers, and other concerned advocates lobbied for the district to address safety issues by hiring more counselors, not cops. That summer, the Seattle School Board suspended its partnership with SPD, which stationed five armed officers in Seattle schools, indefinitely. 

Over the years, the usual suspects have advocated to bring cops back to school campuses on a few occasions, particularly after the killing of Amarr Murphy-Paine at Garfield in 2024. Most recently, SPD’s new top cop, Chief Shon Barnes, came out in strong support of bringing SROs back into schools.

Now, the proposed $1.3 billion FEPP renewal includes $235 million for “safety.” While the Mayor’s Office admits part of the safety strategy will include SPD, the Mayor doesn’t want to use the words “police officers, school safety officer, care officers,” as he said at an April 23 press conference.

"We're going to work with these students and let them tell us what looks like for them," Harrell said at the press conference. "I personally do have a strong preference to develop relationships with my police department."

The Mayor's office told Capitol Hill Seattle Blog that the Mayor is “operating in line” (Jseattle’s words) with the School Boards’ 2020 moratorium on SROs — the board would have to lift the moratorium to bring in SROs anyway.  

But some public commenters still felt unclear on what SPD stands to reap from the FEPP. In the Monday meeting, City Council candidate Eddie Lin asked for “clarification that the levy is not going to fund SPD salaries.” 

I asked the Mayor’s Office for more clarity and they did not respond. The City Council will convene Thursday morning to discuss the levy proposal further.