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The state of Washington is constitutionally responsible for fully funding public education. But heading into the November election and the next legislative session, the state superintendent says the school system is underfunded by $4 billion a year.
In Whatcom County, students, parents, teachers and staff from Blaine to Mount Baker have felt the effects of school district cuts, with layoffs and other cost-saving measures undertaken to balance budgets. Superintendents across the county and the state have warned that without significant increases to state funding, more cuts may be coming.
What created this problem — and how can it be fixed?
The problems
Part of school districts’ financial struggles can be attributed to the increase in the cost of running a school district over the past few years, without a “commensurate increase in state funding to pay for those costs,” said David Knight, an associate professor at the University of Washington College of Education.
If school funding had kept pace with inflation, all school districts would be receiving about $1,000 more per student than they are right now, the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction spokesperson Katy Payne previously told Cascadia Daily News. In 2022-23, districts received $13,259 per student in state funding.
In particular, schools have felt the crunch in paying for special education, transportation, and materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC). The state government only provides special education funding for up to 16% of students — if schools have more that qualify for special education, that money must come from local levies.
An example of the cap’s effect locally is seen at Mount Baker School District. There, about 21% of students qualify for special education, so Mount Baker pays $950,000 annually from local tax dollars to meet those needs.
The 2012 McCleary Decision determined that the state was “not fulfilling its obligation to fully fund education in the state.” Part of the solution post-McCleary came in the addition of a “regionalization factor” intended to boost state funding based on the cost of living.
But the factor has affected districts unequally and has created financial challenges for many. Four districts in Whatcom County will see a decrease in the factor this year; Bellingham’s and Ferndale’s factors will decrease from 7.5% to 6%, Blaine’s from 14% to 12% and Mount Baker’s from 9% to 6%, according to Washington State Fiscal Information.
Enrollment declines are another challenge. While those declines are partly due to fewer children, they’re also due to parents moving their children to private schools or homeschooling, although State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said students are slowly coming back to public schools.
Some think that the funds that emerged from the McCleary Decision weren’t used on the right things.
District 39 state Sen. Keith Wagoner, who is running for reelection, said he blames Reykdal (who is also up for reelection, facing David Olson) for encouraging teacher wage increases in the post-McCleary era.
“More money for teacher’s salaries is not the same as more money for education,” Wagoner said, arguing that teacher’s salaries are likely too high. The average base salary for a teacher in Washington is $87,384 as of 2022-23, but with “additional” salary added, it’s $100,456.
It’s true that most of the money from the McCleary decision went to teacher salary increases, based on research, Knight said. But there are “positive, long-term outcomes associated with better paid teachers.”
“People say the money went to the teacher’s union and they wanted it to go to the kid,” Knight said. “That’s not how schools finance work. Eighty percent of the budget is people. So yeah, a lot of the money went to personnel and [the] most important resources in schools.”
Wagoner’s opponent, Democrat John Snow, also disagrees with Wagoner’s assessment. He said the cost-of-living is high and teachers are “essential.”
Short-term solutions
Short-term solutions consist of, simply, more money.
Reykdal is asking for $2.9 billion in new dollars for Washington schools in the next state budget, he announced at a press conference Monday, Sept. 23.
Reykdal said the state “must fund basic education as currently defined and constitutionally required.” That includes fully funding special education, providing adequate funding for student transport to and from school, and providing sufficient funding for MSOC.
Legislators have previously increased the cap on special education funding, but Reykdal is asking for $300 million in the first year of the biennium and $700 million in the second year to fully fund special ed, totaling $1 billion.
The idea of fully funding special education appears to be a bipartisan issue: both gubernatorial candidates, Republican Dave Reichert and Democrat Bob Ferguson, have pledged to do so. Wagoner and Snow in District 39 agree on the idea, and 42nd District Reps. Alicia Rule and Joe Timmons also agree.
Reykdal is also seeking a 9.5% increase to MSOC funding, asking for $350 million over the next two years. He’s also asking for $695 million to pay classified staff better.
Public school spending makes up 43.9% of the state’s current budget. While the actual amount of funding is up from 2019, education’s share of the state’s budget is down from 49.4% in the 2017-19 biennium. Both governor candidates want to bump that percentage back up. Reichert told The Seattle Times that his goal is to make 50% of the state’s general fund allocated to education.
Ferguson also told The Times he wants to protect the state’s Capital Gains Tax to preserve funding for education. Initiative 2109 on the November ballot aims to repeal the 7% tax on annual capital gains of more than $262,000, as of 2023. The revenue from the tax goes to school and child care funding.
Reykdal said at the Sept. 23 press conference that he would support a state income tax, if it lowered sales taxes and property taxes. He said there are “limits” to his support of an income tax but that it would generate more revenue that could be used to fund schools.
Long-term solutions
Looking longer term, many legislators and candidates are calling for a deeper look into the school funding system.
Timmons, a member of the Education Committee and currently seeking reelection, said he thinks several legislators are excited to be looking at education funding, after previous lawmakers got “burned out” with the topic in the McCleary era.
“I think we have an opportunity here,” he said. “I think we need to re-look at how we fund schools fundamentally.” Timmons’ challenger, Republican Kamal Bhachu, described Blaine’s financial challenges but said he needed to look more into school funding issues.
Ferguson told The Seattle Times that he wants to send more money to districts with more low-income students.
Knight said Washington’s current, complex funding model provides some extra funds for students classified as low-income, special education, students receiving translingual or bilingual services and more, but it’s a very small amount of funding. Knight said the state “essentially operates a flat funding model.”
Knight argued that Washington’s funding system needs to be “more progressive,” and that districts with long-term poverty benefit from more investments and greater resources.
Wagoner said adjustments to the regionalization factor might be in order. “I don’t really think we got that right,” he said.
The idea of “school choice” has popped up in Republican campaigns. Reichert said in the second gubernatorial debate that kids should have the opportunity to choose the schools they want to go to and “tax dollars [should] follow them” to those schools.
Wagoner agreed, saying the money should “follow the kid’s backpack,” whether a kid is at a “charter school or a private school or a public school or homeschooled.”
Ferguson said at the debate that Reichert was trying to use a school voucher system to take tax dollars away from the public school system and send them to “unaccountable private schools.” Snow said he’s “vehemently opposed” to the concept of school vouchers.
All these major conversations about school funding are also happening as the state’s revenue dips. Timmons said he’s worried the state’s budget challenges will stymie efforts to increase or overhaul school funding.
“I think until we right our ship in the state budget, it’s going to be hard to really fix this problem,” he said.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
