How lawmakers went from $3B for education to making the system more regressive

Plus some recommended reading and some internal Observer news

Public education advocates kicked off the legislative session pushing for billions for K-12 education, and, ideally, a more equitable distribution of state money for education between rich and poor school districts. Instead, the Legislature’s session-ending deal will do little to alleviate the financial strain on most school districts, and looks to drive a bigger wedge between rich and poor school districts. The Legislature arguably shirked the state’s “paramount duty” to fully fund public education, and possibly invited fresh litigation, the oft-mentioned “McCleary 2.0.” 

The initial aim for K-12 stakeholders going into the 2025-27 biennium was for the Democratically-controlled Legislature to invest an additional $3 billion in education’s “big three”: Special education, school materials, supplies, and operating costs, and transportation. That was always going to be a heavy lift in a bad budget year, especially after Gov. Bob Ferguson began to exert downward pressure on tax increases.

The final numbers for the 2025-27 biennium look to be closer to $420M in added investment for basic ed, with about $310M invested in special education, $78M in school materials and operating costs, and less money for student transportation than in previous budgets.