by Mark Epstein and Oliver Miska
In 2023, students, educators, and families successfully fought for $20 million to fund community-led youth mental health solutions in the aftermath of the killing at Ingraham High School. Unfortunately, our mayor and City Council have been slow to implement the funding and still only propose to spend half of the allocation. We fear they are trying to limit community funding in order to balance our city's budget deficit instead of prioritizing our youth's safety and health.
Despite record wealth in Seattle, the mayor's recent executive action to spend up to $10 million leaves it unclear how much money will actually go to building capacity for community-led organizations. In his plan, the City will continue to fund telehealth with $2.4 million this year, with $2 million going toward "violence prevention," leaving communities wondering about the remaining $5.6 million for this calendar year. The mayor's proposal includes paying for CCTV cameras operated by the Seattle Police Department. On July 17, the Finance, Native Communities & Tribal Governments Committee will be hearing the mayor's Department of Education and Early Learning's (DEEL) plan on how much they will spend and where these funds will go.
Community partners' mental health programs are limited by inconsistent investment and accountability, leaving educators, families, and our community unsure about our government's ability to not only keep our youth safe but to listen to their demands. Kaley Duong, a youth organizer with the NAACP Youth Council, said, "Restorative justice practices in schools are necessary to meet the mental health needs of students. The benefits of implementing these changes would prevent conflict and give youth the chance to learn communication and social emotional learning. These mental health funds are just one of the many demands students made over the years that have been delayed or cut, including ethnic studies."
Student mental health services has been one of the demands of youth activists over the last five years. While the NAACP Youth Council and Seattle Student Union have called for "funding counselors, not cops," the City seems to be wobbling on whether or not they are committed to keeping cops out of our schools.
Austerity spending increases insecurity and puts our communities at risk. The recent shootings impacting young people and the community throughout the Seattle region raise intersecting concerns about safety, mental health, and economic justice. Seattle Public Schools plans to close 20 elementary schools and lay off staff in the name of "well-resourced schools," and many Seattle families continue to wait anxiously to hear the details. We know each closure will further disrupt another neighborhood anchor.
While we should focus our attention on holding the City Council and mayor accountable, the onus is also on both our state and local lawmakers to build sustainable funding for community-led solutions to keep our young people safe in the wake of national and global instability.
Restorative justice and mental health services led by community organizations and parents are effective, just not well-funded. The boots on the ground doing this important work already include Community Passageways, WA-BLOC, Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Whose Streets? Our Streets!, Creative Justice, Africatown, East African Community Services, SWACE, and many others. They are scrambling to deal with cuts and finding new funding sources.
These organizations are trying to grow with the changing needs of our students, which have shifted from telehealth priorities to violence prevention and in-school mental health services. While DEEL has announced new contracts with this $2.4 million dollar investment in telehealth projects, there are remaining questions about which community organizations the City will contract with and how much they will agree to spend.
Once again, our students, educators, and community organizations are trying to hold our City officials accountable for the promises they made to our students. After the recent news of the mayor's partial plan, Chetan Soni, one of the students who fought for the $20 million in 2023, said, "Funding student mental health shouldn't be political. I strongly call on the Seattle City Council to implement the approved $20 million revenue source as directed last year before the next avoidable tragedy."
These multiple crises in our schools cannot solely be blamed on our City officials, but we can hold them accountable to student demands to meet student mental health needs. Accountability can only happen with a broader analysis of why austerity spending is happening in one of the wealthiest states in the country. A holistic solution to these crises involves navigating the partisan politics of all levels of government from the school district to City officials to the state Legislature and the federal government. Unfortunately, funding our education system is politicized by federal, state, and local partisan politicians.
In June, the U.S. surgeon general declared that gun violence is a nationwide public health crisis. This should give cause to the federal government to release emergency funds to address gun violence, but such funds will only be allocated if advocated for by State and City officials at the national level. Adequate funding is needed to build pilot models of care locally that transform our schools into places of liberation and long-term safety — not of criminalization, violence, and harm.
Our education system is predominantly funded by the State, with local property taxes and federal funds providing additional funds. Federal emergency funds, providing up to 10% of our state's education budget, from COVID-19 relief will end in September 2024, and states across the country are facing record deficits. In Washington State, this means funds for organizations like Seattle's Centro De La Raza will be cut because their "Building Bridges Grants" were funded by ESSER funds. To make matters worse, House Republicans just announced a huge slash in federal education funds, potentially deepening the deficit in the following budget cycle.
Both The Seattle Times and The Stranger have pointed to our legislators and the State Supreme Court as those responsible for fulfilling our state's "paramount duty" to fund our schools. Many rightfully look to University of Washington Education Professor David Knight, who warned our state legislators that the federal stimulus would run out last session. We are turning to community advocates in the Equity in Education Coalition and Balance Our Tax Code Coalition to develop multiyear plans to ensure our legislators make progressive and transformative changes, not reactionary quick fixes.
Unless the Washington State Legislature holds a special session before January, which is an unlikely measure made necessary by our problematic part-year legislative calendar, our schools will remain underfunded and our students' mental health at risk. Our City officials might not be able to fully fund our schools within their "legislative nexus," but they could advocate at the State and federal levels to address these deficits. With national politics feeling unreliable, to say the least, it makes sense that parents, educators, and community organizations turn to the State and local officials for more consistent funding for our schools.
The violence, harm, and mental health crises plaguing our youth are rooted in inequality and insecurity. The wealth in our state and country must be shared to find equitable community-led solutions. These solutions can be implemented, but the people in direct contact with the youth must be fully funded.
The mayor's plan with DEEL to spend "up to" $10 million will be detailed at the July 17 Finance, Native Communities & Tribal Governments Committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. Community members will be showing up to ask:
In the short-term, people can email, call, and show up to testify at the City Council's upcoming budget meeting on July 17 and the final vote meeting later this month or early August. In the longer-term, the fight to fully fund our schools is to apply pressure on Olympia in January, when the legislative session begins.
Community organizations are calling on the Seattle City Council to take immediate action to release the full $20 million and come up with a plan for ensuring that community solutions receive sustainable, capacity-building funding. Their letter campaign, with over 200 emails sent already, demands not only short-term local solutions for meaningful mental health investments but also calls for local officials to advocate at the State and federal level to fully fund our schools through progressive taxation.
Is this the right time? Luckily, yes. After the committee meeting on July 17, the City will hold their mid-budget meeting sometime in late July or early August, where community members will once again be asked to give public testimony. We still have an opportunity to amend the bill to ensure our community's needs are met. Will you let your electeds know what you think?
Which way forward? Let us not lose sight of what is at stake. In the words of Langston Hughes, in his poem "Youth":
"We have tomorrow/Bright before us /Like a flame/ Yesterday, a night-gone thing, A sun-down name.
"And dawn to-day/Broad arch above the road we came. We march"
As national politics become increasingly unstable, the impact on our students continues to be felt. We can choose to inspire them. The bureaucratic violence of delaying community solutions will not go unnoticed.
The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.
The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.
Mark Epstein is a 31-year South Seattle resident. He taught elementary and high school for 35 years, with the last 25 at Rainier Beach High School. He is a devoted father and grandfather, with daily walks and love from his pandemic puppy. He has been a career-long union activist, and since his retirement in 2019, he has been active in support of immigrant communities in our state. A lover of music and growing food, he is also an avid biker for transportation.
Oliver Treanor Miska, 33, is a queer Seattleite, educator, community organizer, and lobbyist for educational justice policy in Washington State. Transitioning out of Seattle classrooms after six years, they recently founded Solidarity Policy and Public Affairs, a political consulting firm. As a community organizer, Oliver has held leadership roles within Seattle Democratic Socialist of America and Washington Ethnic Studies Now, where they co-lead a statewide legislative coalition. Oliver is organizing to advocate for progressive revenue and equitable distribution of education spending policy at the state Legislature. To contact them, email solidaritypolicywa@gmail.com
📸 Featured Image: Photo via PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock.com
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