Reykdal: Questions Remain about Legislature’s Education Funding Priorities

State House and Senate leaders are expected to release their budget proposals within the next week. Below is State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s statement.

OLYMPIA—February 18, 2026—Legislators in the House and Senate are preparing to release their budget proposals within the next week, and questions remain about how the proposed budgets will support student learning and well-being, families, educators, and communities across Washington state.

Over the last year, state leaders have been sounding the alarm about a budget shortfall. Last spring, the Legislature made cuts across a variety of programs to balance the budget, including several million dollars to various community-based organizations that support students with extracurricular learning, achievement, and preparedness for high school graduation and beyond.

Going into this legislative session, Governor Ferguson’s budget proposal included more cuts to critical education programs like Transition to Kindergarten and Running Start, while also neglecting to make additional investments––investments that are necessary for the state to meet its constitutional obligation to fully fund basic education.

Earlier this week, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released a new forecast indicating that state revenues for the current two-year budget will be $827 million higher than predicted in November. There have also been reports that budget writers intend to leverage higher-than-anticipated proceeds in certain pension funds, as well as transfer funds from the Climate Commitment Act, to balance the budget.

With additional revenue expected, it is unclear whether further cuts to education are being considered. With a shortfall of nearly $1 billion per year in funding for the basic education that is granted by our state’s constitution, it is counterproductive to keep cutting supports for students and educators. The Legislature should avoid another legal showdown over the state’s paramount duty.

Despite consistent misinformation about public school funding, state funding for public education has lost ground to inflation over seven years. Education funding as a share of the state budget is below the ratio it was when the State Supreme Court held the Legislature in contempt in 2014.

One consistent example of misinformation is around school employee salaries. All three major employee groups in public education—administrators (principals and assistant principals), certificated staff (teachers and other school-level educators), and classified staff (paraeducators, bus drivers, nutrition professionals, and other school staff)—have seen pay increases below the growth in our state’s overall per-capita income over the last 15 years. This level of growth has been consistent with the growth in legislator salaries over the same period.

It would be a mistake to starve students and communities of educational resources this year and beyond based on misinformation. These decisions must be driven by accurate data.

The systems that support our young people and their families are deeply interwoven. Cuts to programs outside of school, like access to food, health care, childcare, housing, and other critical services, have just as direct of an impact on students’ ability to learn at school as cuts to afterschool programs, early learning, dual credit access, and more.

In the coming months, at the direction of the Legislature, I will be proposing research-based changes to our state’s school funding model based on recommendations from the K–12 Funding Equity Workgroup, established by the 2025 Legislature. With the unanticipated additional resources available this year, and the Legislature’s commitment to establishing new progressive revenue, the Legislature has a chance to begin setting the stage for those critical changes.

My office has already proposed policies for the Legislature to increase fiscal accountability for school districts, including requiring locally elected school board members to undergo training on financial management and school boards to keep an emergency fund in their budget. I have also proposed that school board members are compensated fairly for their service.

I am asking lawmakers to finally prioritize basic education and education services that are not part of the state’s constitutional obligations but provide essential services, and to do no harm to community partners and local governments that offer the vital services that some families rely on to support their children and our state’s learners.

This supplemental budget should stay focused on affordability for families and on improving the learning and well-being of Washington’s youth.