As the calendar turns to May, we know that a lot is happening out there in your buildings with testing, concerts, field days, proms, graduation, and the other end-of-the-year activities. The rest of the school year is sure to fly by. Here is a wrap-up of this year’s legislative session (at least as much as we know at this point), that I hope provides you with some intel to help you continue planning for any changes that may be coming for 2025-26.
The Legislature adjourned “sine die” on Sunday. They passed new biennial operating, capital, and transportation budgets along with several revenue bills that are needed to meet the spending goals of the Democrats. Whether Governor Bob Ferguson will sign these bills is still unknown. He has until May 20 to sign the budget. His statement last weekend was fairly vague about his final decision on this. If he does veto any of the revenue bills, he may have to bring back legislators to make adjustments to their budget. The only talk that I’ve heard about a special legislative session is that there may be a need for one next fall, depending on what might happen at the federal level.
For a very general look at the overall budget, read this article by the Washington State Standard. In it, Jerry Cornfield writes that, “The agreement hammered out by House and Senate budget writers does not tap the state’s emergency reserves or furlough state employees. It pays for new collective bargaining agreements for state workers and provides $100 million for law enforcement hiring sought by the governor. Overall, it spends $77.8 billion in the two-year budget cycle that begins July 1, roughly 9% higher than the current biennium. When all the adding and subtracting is done, there’s $7.4 billion in new spending.”
The majority of this new spending is for “maintenance level” changes, which is the cost of continuing current services, adjusted for inflation and enrollment. The Legislature prioritized funding the collective bargaining agreements for employees, so several billion dollars of the new budget is allocated to increased salaries and health benefits. For school employees, the salary increase provided to state-funded employees is 2.5% for 2025-26 and 2.6% for 2026-27. SEBB monthly contributions will be $1307/month for 2025-26 and $1344/month for 2026-27. The Washington Research Council provides some additional financial information here.
While we can acknowledge how important this maintenance level funding is, education advocates are not celebrating much about this session. Going into the session, our “Big 3” coalition was pushing for almost $1.5 billion per year in increased basic education funding for special education, MSOC, and transportation. This is the documented shortfall that districts need to cover their costs in these areas. Unfortunately, the budget from this session only includes an additional $420 million per year for schools, with $310 million going to special education and $78 million going to MSOC.
In addition, HB 2049 removes the levy lid so wealthy districts can now raise more local dollars, which will help their budgets, but poorer districts may not be able to do this. Some LEA money will be provided, but it won’t be enough. The inequities between school districts will be exacerbated, and once again, districts will face a greater reliance on local levy dollars. With the state not fully funding the costs of basic education, conditions are ripe for a “McCleary 2.0” lawsuit to address this issue. The Washington Observer has a good article here for more analysis.
Yesterday, the Seattle Times published an op-ed from WASA’s Executive Director, Joel Aune. In it, Joel writes that,
“The Legislature has failed to uphold its constitutional duty to amply fund K–12 education. That is not an opinion; the data says so. Some legislators may try to spin the outcome as a “significant investment” in public education. Don’t buy it — it’s simply not true. School districts across the state are grappling with a severe and ongoing funding crisis. Yet lawmakers missed a chance to meaningfully invest in students. A potential moment for bold leadership became another example of political inaction.”
You can be sure that WASA is already developing their 2026 legislative platform to once again ask legislators to fully fund basic education.
In order to balance the 2025-27 budget, legislators used a combination of cuts and new revenue. Programs in K-12 education that were cut include Outdoor Schools WA, Career Connected Learning, the “Failing Schools” program for Required Action Districts (RAD), and over $138 million for other education grant programs like FIRST robotics, Project Lead the Way, Field STEM, CorePlus, and more. Early learning and higher education also had cuts like the elimination of early ECEAP funding, delaying the Fair Start for Kids Act, and the loss of Bridge Grants for students to cover higher education expenses.
Here’s a look at some of the key budget items for K-12:
- Special Education
- Special Education Multiplier Increased: $192,923,000/year
- 16% Cap Removed: $81,717,000/year
- Special Education Safety Net Increased: $35,000,000/year
- Special Education to age 22: $12,427,000/year
- MSOC: $78,891,000/year
- Community Eligibility Provision (school meals): $17,900,000/year
- LEA: $137,000,000/year
- Transition to Kindergarten: Funding is capped at the current level.
- Per Pupil Enhancement: $50,000,000 (one time only, in June apportionment)
- Principal Intern Grant: $477,000/year
- Washington State Leadership Academy (WSLA, or Next Level Leaders): $810,000/year
- TPEP/BEST: No changes to BEST, some TPEP funds cut
- Inclusionary Practices Pilots: $12,800,000/year
- Reducing Restraint & Eliminating Isolation Project: $4,000,000/year
- Ninth Grade Success Grants: $1,500,000/year
- K-12 Grant Programs (including Outdoor Education): -$138,000,000
On page 275 of this document, you can see all of the specific program funding for K-12 education. This includes added funding for programs like competency-based education, mastery-based learning demonstration projects, and the CTE careers work group.
For an easy-to-read document that highlights the main K-12 funding buckets, check out this chart by the League of Education Voters.
Revenue Bills
Here are the major revenue bills passed by the Legislature that are still awaiting Governor Ferguson’s signature. For more on this, read the Washington State Standard.
HB 2081 permanently increases the state’s two primary business and occupation tax rates and is projected to bring in about $2.1 billion for the next budget and $5.6 billion over four years. This covers roughly a third of the budget shortfall.
