WA Top Education Official Seeks Big Boost in School Budget

Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal has released his proposals for the 2025-2027 WA State education budget and it's asking for nearly $3 billion more. The information was released Tuesday.

   $2.9 billion dollar increase asked for

In a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee, as well as information released on the OSPI website, Reykdal says the additional $2.9 billion would be broken down into three areas specifically.

They include, according to MyEdmondsNews:

"A third of those new dollars would go to fully fund special education. Another $695 million to add and retain classified staff with higher pay. And $350 million is sought to cover inflationary costs of materials and supplies."

He claims WA State underfunds K-12 education by about $4 billion dollars a year, and says inflation has also played a role in not being able to keep up with instruction materials, supplies, and other operating costs.

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Costs for current programs are also rising, including the expense of providing free meals for what is now 70 percent of WA public school students. Reykdal is also asking for another $152 million to specifically address what he calls transportation issues.

Reykdal's proposals did not specifically address if the additional funding requests are in any way related to drops in Federal funding, caused by decreasing enrollments--especially in the Seattle and other Puget Sound area districts.