OPINION | With Trump's Threats and Statewide Budget Deficits, Will Our Lawmakers Amply Fund Our Schools Before the Legislative Session Ends?

by Oliver Miska

It should come as no surprise: Trump's Project 2025-inspired attacks are here.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion; trans rights; immigration; environmental protections; research; art. Name any important issue, and it's facing uncertainty at best and, in many cases, complete dismantling.

If you are trying to keep track of the chaos politics of Trump's second administration, you might already know that schools are at the center of this war on public services. Out of one side of his mouth, Trump parrots traditional right-wing talking points, claiming our school policies should be left to the states to decide. Out of the other, he threatens to pull federal funding from states that fail to comply, as he has with Maine.

With Trump's investigations already targeting Washington State higher education institutions, it's safe to assume our K–12 funding could be next on the chopping block.

But our schools were already facing historic deficits, cuts, and closures. School districts across the state are looking at budget difficulties, and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) alone faces a roughly $100 million deficit for 2025–2026. SPS scrapped its plan to close up to 21 schools last November, postponing serious conversations about staff cuts and class sizes until after the state Legislature makes budget decisions this session, which runs until April 27.

Local districts and individual schools are planning their 2025–2026 budgets without final numbers from the Legislature, so harmful last-minute adjustments and cuts could be coming to students, educators, and parents in the fall. Wondering what these cuts would include, over 60 community members attended SPS Superintendent Brent Jones' Community Engagement Meeting on Feb. 25 at Bailey Gatzert Elementary.

At the meeting, Jones presented an overview of two budget scenarios for 2025–2026, with upwards of $28 million in staff adjustments included in one. Yet Jones' proposals did not provide meaningful detail about what these "adjustments" might mean for class sizes, nor how the district will navigate contract negotiations with the teachers' union.

While the school board will vote on these proposals in July, this vote will be limited by what our legislators decide about our state's budget during the final days of our state's 105-day legislative session. With 75 days already passed, a lot has happened, but the numbers are not looking good.

Days 1 Through 79:

Since the beginning of the legislative session on Jan. 13, over a thousand bills have been introduced, debated, and voted on, but nothing has been a hotter topic than education funding.

Legislators have two major questions to ask and answer this session:

1. What should we fund? and

2. How should we fund it?

For the question of what to fund, advocates debated about legislative priorities. These included the "Big 3" that called for increasing funds for special education; materials, operating supplies costs (MSOC); and student transportation.

Many advocated that the Big 3 were not enough and added Local Effort Assistance, nicknaming the new priorities list as the "Big 4." Local Effort Assistance would help direct funds to districts with lower property values, helping equalize new property taxes.

During the first half of the session, legislators debated, heard testimony, and passed and killed many bills. After 70-plus days of debate and the mid-session cutoff passing on March 12, the Big 4 dwindled to the "Medium 2" (see table below).

Throughout this conversation, some advocates, including the Fund our Schools Coalition, of which I am a member, supported the "Big 5" priorities. Our coalition brought into the conversation the important question of how to fund our schools.

We argue that in order to pay for increased funding for schools, we must raise progressive revenue such as taxes on big businesses or intangible assets of the uber-rich.

Other than a premature email in December, advocates had to wait until March 24 for a better picture of how our Legislature would take on our growing state budget deficit. Both the House and Senate Democrats revealed their proposal for what to fund in our state's budget and how to fund it.

While each document is over 1,000 pages, the following graphics highlight the four-year totals for K–12 bills this session.

Standing alone, these numbers can be easily compared and understood: The Senate's K–12 budget is much more generous than that of the House, but fails to meet the expressed needs of the state's lead education agency, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

Numbers without context can be dangerous, especially without the context that students and experts have reminded our legislators of this entire session: Our students would perform best in world-class schools.

Currently, the state spends only 3.17% of our gross state product (GSP) on education; our national average is 3.54%, while some states spend closer to 4%. If Washington spent this much on schools, it would mean $10 billion more in funds for K–12 a year, not the $500 million our best-case scenario has schools receiving.

Students understood our legislators' proposals would be lacking. That's why on Wednesday, March 5, students and educators from the Fund Our Schools Campaign rallied in Olympia to disrupt business as usual with a banner drop inside the Capitol dome.

Along with banners on all four balconies, leaflets fell on unsuspecting lobbyists and legislators. Chants of "Tax the Rich, Fund Our Schools" echoed through the normally quiet halls. You can watch the video online.

While clashes at Republican town halls have gone viral on social media, most have disregarded the budget backlash Democrats received at their own town halls. At the 43rd Legislative District town hall on March 15, constituents challenged the budget's austerity, targeting Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen throughout the event. When the budget came up at the House, the Fund Our Schools Coalition testified.

Unfortunately, disrupting business as usual did not change business as usual. Neither the House nor the Senate's current budgets will amply fund the world-class schools our students deserve. But that doesn't mean the fight is over. We have less than 30 days to change the hearts and minds of lawmakers.

Days 79 Through 105 and the Interim:

With the best-case scenario meaning cuts and increased class sizes next fall, students and educators are upset. That's why we are once again reminding lawmakers on April 9 that we have a long way to go to become world-class. While we applaud both the House and the Senate for introducing much-needed new progressive revenue in their budgets, we urge our lawmakers to strengthen these policies with a few simple changes. Well, maybe not so simple.

To start, the Senate could expand SB 5794 to eliminate the hundreds of tax breaks given to big corporations. Right now, it removes only 20. It had a public hearing on Monday, March 31. The House also has some work to do.

For example, removing a few lines of exemptions in HB 2045 could raise over $4 billion in revenue for our schools — instead of giving tax breaks to 78 corporations, such as Boeing. An amendment proposing such a simple change could be posed in the Finance Committee or on the House floor. Anyone can sign up and submit written testimony supporting such an amendment anytime before April 3, when this bill comes up for public hearing in the House Finance Committee.

We might also suggest not cutting educators out of the process of bargaining their benefits, as the Senate has in SB 5793.

With legislators upholding the status quo in their budget, the Federal Way Educators Union has already taken a bold step to have a vote to strike on April 14, with other locals gearing up in the coming weeks.

But it isn't up to a bunch of teachers and students to come up with all the solutions or get arrested like they did in 2011. It will take a village. As progressive revenue and budget bills come up for hearings and votes in these last 30 days, we need to show up to remind our lawmakers who they work for.

If you want to join educators, youth, and advocates in Olympia on April 9, learn more about the Fund Our Schools Coalition, or join the 800-plus others who have emailed Gov. Bob Ferguson. Event updates can be found on Instagram.

If you are in Seattle Public Schools and want to stay involved in the local budget process, follow along through June and July when the SPS board will vote on a final budget.

Even in the "best-case scenario" given by our Legislators this session, we will be maintaining the harmful status quo of politics as usual.

When cuts and layoffs come in 2025–2026, our local school boards and districts will once again face the doom loop of angry parent mobs. That is unless our governor and Legislature take action in a special session or next session, which would begin in January 2026, if we can wait that long.

We tell our students to get into "good trouble," but when that doesn't work, what do we tell them next?

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Oliver Treanor Miska, 34, is a queer Seattleite, educator, community organizer, and lobbyist for educational justice policy in Washington State. Moving out of full-time classroom teaching after six years, they substitute teach in SPS and are the founding director of Solidarity Policy and Public Affairs, a political consulting firm. Oliver currently works with Lavender Rights Project, Washington Ethnic Studies Now, and the Fund Our Schools Coalition. Oliver is also a member of SCORE, the Seattle Caucus of Rank and File Educators. They work to organize youth, families, educators, and community organizations to pass progressive revenue to fully fund our schools statewide. To contact them, email solidaritypolicywa@gmail.com