OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington's chief of schools Chris Reykdal says the state currently underfunds K-12 education by $4 billion every year.
"High inflation impacts to budgets, a reliance on one-time federal money, and a lack of investment on the state side consistent with inflation has got us once again in some serious constitutional risk," Reykdal, the state's superintendent of public instruction, said Monday. "This budget aims to address that."
The state has been plagued with talk of budget cuts and schools closing, with inflation devastating districts to the tune of $1 billion, Reykdal said.
With that in mind, the biennial budget he laid out is "sensitive" to what he calls the state's perpetual budget challenges: he's only asking for $2.9 billion over the next two years.
Reykdal highlighted three major funding items: fully funding special education, budget increases for transportation, and a monetary injection into maintenance, supplies and school operating costs (M-SOCs).
The last category, Reykdal said, has seen expenses rise by as much as 50% for things like liability insurance. Supplies for districts have inflated by upwards of 30%.
"We're seeking a permanent 9.5% increase to M-SOC," Reykdal said. "These will be enormous opportunities for districts."
In total, Reykdal is seeking a $350 million budget increase for these operating costs over the first two years.
But he said he wants to go beyond the basics of what the state is legally bound to fund. He's asking the legislature to fully fund regional student mental health hubs and increase spending to hire social workers, which he says are the lynchpin of connecting students and families to school resources.
Reykdal also announced an apprenticeship model to train and retain more credentialed teachers.
"To find our paraeducators and those who really want to commit to the profession long term, take them from a paraeducator role to a certificate of teacher, pay for their training," he said. "They'll get a mentor teacher, they'll get coaching and guidance."
He also outlined an ambitious investment to reduce 25% turnover among classified staff, such as paraeducators, food and nutrition staff, technology and transportation workers.
"We think compensation has a lot to do with that," he said of the high turnover rates. "It's $695 million in the first two years. It's $1.6 billion in the following two years. That is extremely ambitious and we should do it."
Reykdal says to close the $4 billion gap, the state may have to get creative and be relentless. He says it may come down to a new income tax, if voters go for it.
He said it may also take a push for change in federal funding formulas.
"Washingtonians, you should be relentless in your pursuit of lawmakers at the federal level who get us our money back. Right now we are subsidizing other states to the tune of $22 billion a year," he said. "Getting our federal delegation to change federal funding formulas that either return more of our federal tax dollars back to us or start giving us the deductions that we need once again in our state so that we can then backfill."
The biennial budget proposal now goes to Governor Jay Inslee, who will put together a spending plan by December to send on to the next governor and legislature for the 2025 session.