This was budget week in Olympia. The released their budget on Monday morning and the followed on Monday afternoon. The rest of the week has been spent trying to digest and respond to these 1,000+ page documents along with following committee action as legislators work to move out a few more bills before their next cut-off date of April 2 when policy bills have to pass out of the opposite house committees.
In of the two different budgets, Jerry Cornfield from the Washington State Standard says, “In short, Senate Democrats in the next two-year budget by delaying expansion of early learning and child care programs, furloughing state workers, and draining state reserves in order to boost funding for special education and other needs of public schools. House Democrats that avoids controversial moves like furloughing state workers and drawing down savings. Like the Senate, they hold off expanding popular early learning and child care programs. But the House also pledges about $1 billion less in new funding for special education and public school operating costs.”
From a K-12 perspective, there are many more things to like about the Senate budget as it would provide $1 billion in new spending to special education and MSOC. This is about half of what our districts need, but it is much better than what the House proposes. Too many of our school districts are struggling financially, which shows this is a systematic problem that the Legislature needs to fix.
My letter to budget writers asked them to adopt at least the level of investment in special education and MSOC that is proposed by the Senate. I also thanked them for their continued investment in the principal intern grant program (even though funding would be reduced from $700,000 to $477,000) and in the Washington State Leadership Academy (WSLA–or as we now refer to it–Next Level Leaders). Other programs have been cut here and there by the two different budgets. The Senate cuts funding for TPEP and BEST for example, and the House cuts funding for Outdoor Education. There is much to be worked out with these differences as legislators work to agree on one final budget before session is expected to end on April 27.
Legislators are looking for savings everywhere they can because in order to make any of these proposed budgets work, there needs to be both cuts and additional revenue. Next week, the revenue bills will be heard in both fiscal committees. Here is a again from the Washington State Standard. And here is a summary from the Washington State House Democrats.
For one of the best summaries about all of this budget news, turn to WASA’s Dan Steele for his Special Edition on the budget proposals.
Along with other statewide associations and agency partners, as well as many education advocates, we will keep fighting forward for what our schools need. You can help by continuing to email legislators about the student and staff needs that you have in your schools and districts. See below for links to our action alerts and contact information for legislators.
Bills Heard This Week
The volume of policy bills is slowing down, and all of the action is shifting to fiscal committees. For a complete list of bills that I’m tracking, .
Monday
House Education
- Establishing a complaint process to address willful noncompliance with certain state education laws.
- Amending the parents rights initiative to bring it into alignment with existing law.
- Providing temporary interfund loans for school districts.
- Concerning charter school contracts.
- Promoting student access to information about media literacy and civic education.
Tuesday
House Appropriations
- Making 2025-2027 fiscal biennium operating appropriations.
Senate Ways and Means
- Making 2025-2027 fiscal biennium operating appropriations.
Bills Being Heard Next Week
Monday
House Education: Executive Session
- Establishing a complaint process to address willful noncompliance with certain state education laws.
- Amending the parents rights initiative to bring it into alignment with existing law.
- Providing temporary interfund loans for school districts.
Senate Ways and Means
- Enacting a tax on stocks, bonds, and other financial intangible assets for the benefit of public schools.
- Enacting an excise tax on large employers on the amount of payroll expenses above the social security wage threshold to fund programs and services to benefit Washingtonians.
- Concerning property tax reform.
- Adopting recommendations from the tax preference performance review process, eliminating obsolete tax preferences, clarifying legislative intent, and addressing changes in constitutional law.
- Reducing the state sales and use tax rate.
Wednesday
House Appropriations
- Supporting the implementation of competency-based education.
- Extending special education services to students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which the student turns 22.
Thursday
Senate Ways and Means
- Providing postsecondary education consumer protections.
- Improving student access to dual credit programs.
- Encouraging local government partner promise scholarship programs within the opportunity scholarship program.
House Appropriations
- Implementing K-12 savings and efficiencies.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS!
Action Alerts
We now have several Action Alerts going on our “Advocacy and Action Center” page.
Please take action now and send an email to your legislators about these important issues. This is an easy way to get the word out across our state that K-12 education needs their support.
Click on the link above, and scroll down the page until you see the orange “Action Alerts.” Enter your home or school address and then you’ll see a prewritten email that will go to your legislators. You can also add more information or anecdotes to this email if you’d like.
Get Involved
As always, many thanks for all that you do for students and staff. If you have questions or comments or want to get involved in our advocacy efforts, please reach out to me.
Thank you so much!
Important Links
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