WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM

Because taxes are used to fund schools, such figures are public information. That is how Liberty, like any public school in the United States, is able to operate.
But unlike many schools across the country, Liberty has high levels of local funding for schools, thanks to voter approved bonds and levies. In its most recent bond, the Issaquah School District was approved to build several more schools. Turney explained how this process works.
“The district will go out to voters and say we want to issue some debt in the form of bond. We want to borrow some money and we want to build a bunch of buildings, so we went out and voters approved $533 million for this,” Turney said.
Thanks to bonds such as this, as well as other local fees and taxes, 26.2 percent of the Issaquah School District’s budget comes from local funds. These funds are typically acquired through property taxes.
In total, the Issaquah School District receives approximately $14,900 per student, per year from federal, state, and local funding. Though this amount has risen considerably over the years, if multiplied by the 13 years a typical student will spend in public school, it means our educations are currently valued at about $193,000 per student.