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The Legislature adjourned its 2025 Session on April 27, after successfully adopting new two-year Operating and Capital Budgets, along with a slew of policy bills—over 400. K–12 education achieved a handful of modest successes; however, it was not close to what we hoped for—or needed. The Big 3—Special Education, MSOC, and Pupil Transportation—was the major focus for WASA the entire session.
WASA adopted the 2025 Legislative Platform—singularly focused on the Big 3—in April, and hit the ground running. We partnered with the Association of Educational Service Districts, then built a Coalition comprised of nine other education associations. Rather than wait until the fall to advocate for our Platform (ample funding for three constitutionally required basic education programs), we started meeting with legislators and the Office of Financial Management well before the summer rolled around. To assist our members to fully engage, we developed waschoolfunding.org, a website which plainly describes why so many of our school districts are struggling financially. We encouraged members to share this with their parents and other community members, so they could engage with their legislators. Additionally, we developed a Tool Kit, with talking points, policy briefs, fiscal data, social media content and other resources to ensure our members—and our Coalition—were in alignment, speaking with “one voice.”
The buy-in by school administrators, along with school business officials, school directors, and other education advocates (including parents), was powerful. And the momentum we built was phenomenal.
It reached a point at which we would schedule meetings with legislators and they would immediately respond with, “Do you want to talk about the Big 3?” Many legislators in recent years have focused on issues besides the state’s paramount duty and they could make excuses about not knowing or understanding our needs and requests.
In 2025, they could not plead ignorance.
Unfortunately, we ran into two major obstacles.
First, as legislators needed to adopt a 2025–27 Operating Budget, the state faced a massive budget shortfall (the “official” shortfall has never been pinned down, with estimates between $9 and $16 Billion over four years). We argued the state had more than enough revenue to amply fund K–12 education, the paramount duty—described by the Supreme Court as “having the highest rank that is superior to all others; having the rank that is preeminent, supreme, and more important to all others.” Many legislators ignored this reality.
The second major obstacle was a cat fight between the Senate and the House.
Senators, in both parties, stated clearly, in public and in private, that K–12 education was their top priority in 2025. When SB 5263, a bill to provide a $915 million investment for special education hit the Senate Floor, Senator Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle), the Senate Majority Leader, spoke about the state’s current financial situation and noted that funding this bill will force difficult choices to be made; however, “the constitution is very clear that funding basic education is our paramount duty.” He continued, “It is going to be expensive for us, but the fact that it is expensive doesn’t change that on the ground we’ve got kids with special needs who are in our charge and are relying on us to make sure that they get the education to which they’re entitled.” The bill passed out of the Senate with no dissenting votes.
Representatives in the House, save a handful of champions, had other ideas—and other priorities.
Ultimately, following final negotiations, the total biennial special education appropriation was pared down to about $300 million. Certainly, this will help districts; however, it is only a third of what our school districts need.
MSOC experienced a similar battle.
The key bill for us was in the House (HB 1338), but it had rough sailing.
Originally, the bill would have provided an increase of over $300 per student, but was amended to provide under $6 per student, and later reduced to $0. The Senate bill, SB 5192, ultimately was adopted—after being amended by the House.
After final negotiations, MSOC receives a biennial increase of about $35 per student.
In the end, most legislators will claim they provided significant investments in K–12 education, when in reality they increased our funding by $380 million. Of course, they will discuss funding of $2.5 Billion. This is true; however, only $380 million is for discretionary policy choices.
The remaining $2.1 Billion is for REQUIRED Maintenance Level spending.
Legislators should not take credit for providing funding they were required to provide.
Nevertheless, even with a significant increase in Maintenance Level funding, TOTAL K–12 spending as compared to the overall Budget continued to drop, from 43.4 percent in 2023–25 to 43.2 percent in 2025–27.
The 2025 Session was discouraging and disappointing for K–12 education; however, WASA is already preparing for the 2026 Session. We are in-process of developing the 2026 Platform, which will again focus on the Big 3. We are in this for the long-haul and we want to capitalize on the momentum we built this session.
By staying the course, we accomplish two important goals: (1) we remain consistent, helping us to stay focused, while also avoiding legislators from being confused about our priorities; and (2) we can keep our Coalition intact.
What little success we achieved in 2025 was due to overwhelming engagement of school administrators, in concert with our partners.
Working as a team this session was powerful and impactful.
Obviously, there are many, many other issues we engaged upon this session; WASA staff is in-process of putting together our End of Session Report to provide you with all the details.
The Report will provide complete details on the 2025–27 Operating and Capital Budgets (not just the highpoint summaries we provide in our Special Edition TWIOs), along with a comprehensive review of the many education-related bills the Legislature addressed this session.
It will be emailed to all TWIO subscribers (and available on the WASA website) as soon as it is completed.
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