Families and Education Levy 2004
Programs Funded by Past Levies

The table below lists some of the programs that were funded by the Families and Education Levy during the period 1991- 2003, based on the (incomplete) information made available by the Mayor's office.

The most detailed information comes from the Families and Education Levy Progress Report 2003 [also available as a PDF document], which lists the programs funded in 2002 and 2003. We summarize the allocations and the names of evaluation reports from this document. The City's Office of Education, which administers the Levy, sent us evaluation reports in electronic format for some of these programs. We have posted copies of these electronic documents on our website for public download (click on the links in the table). We also reviewed all of the other evaluation reports that the Office of Education made available to us in hardcopy.

Read the Progress Report 2003 and the comprehensive evaluation reports carefully. Read between the lines. The stated goal of the Levy is to "support student academic achievement" [ballot iniative text, Section 1(b)]. But only a handful of the evaluation reports for past Levy programs provide any evidence that these programs actually led to any improvements in academic achievement. Most of the measurable results reported by these programs are at best vague, hopeful statements, such as:

67% of attendees at Youth Involvement Day said they were more likely to play a leadership role at their school. [Seattle Youth Involvement Network]

Read the evaluation reports for yourself. The hardcopy reports should be available for members of the public to inspect upon request. Contact the Office of Education staff to make arrangements.

We were not able to make a full accounting of the money that was spent based on the reports that were provided by the Office of education.