This year a bipartisan coalition of state legislators worked together to provide an historic investment in our state’s K-12 education system, boosting school spending by $1.3 billion, an increase of $1,237 per student. It was the largest education budget increase in state history and continues the major turnaround in education spending currently underway.
While writing a budget in Olympia that impacts every single Washingtonian and business, I spend a lot of time reviewing massive amounts of data and policies that go into making decisions in the Legislature. While it’d be easy to get lost in the numbers and analysis, it’s actually quite simple by always remembering the impact these decisions have on people at home: by thinking of Redmond.
The Legislature adjourned in mid-March and I’m pleased that we were able to take meaningful steps in support of Washington students, our most vulnerable citizens and veterans and their families. During the 2014 session, I sponsored successful legislation that: provides services to an additional 5,000 people with developmental disabilities without costing the state money; supports para-educators who are an essential part of our public school system, providing a great deal of instruction especially for children with special needs; and protects veterans from financial scams.
After every experience, good or bad, there are lessons to be learned. I am proud of Washington’s new two-year budget that added $1 billion to K-12 education did not raise tuition at our state’s colleges and required no new general taxes. However, it was adopted more than two months late and just two days before the previous budget expired, which had some worried about a government shutdown.
Washington’s K-12 and university students are no longer captive to a public-education system struggling to meet basic needs and receiving a declining share of the state budget. Instead, the recent legislative session made education funding a priority for the first time in years and put us on course to finally honor this state’s primary constitutional commitment to students and schools.
A fragile local economy and lack of improvement in our state’s education system were the status quo when a bipartisan group established a governing coalition in the Washington state Senate this past December.
As the weeks became months for those of us crafting the Senate operating budget, and the plan itself crept closer to the 400-page mark, it helped to pause and remember that our task was about more than making policies and allocating dollars.