In recent years, districts have spent much more money to keep schools open in Washington, but state funding is not enough.
That’s according to a new report from the League of Education Voters, which found that school districts increased their spending on personnel by 19.7% between the 2019-20 school year and the 2022-23 school year.
“We are using an outdated, prototypical school funding model to take care of children in 2024,” said a school district superintendent quoted in the report. “It’s like trying to use a geometry equation to solve a math problem. It doesn’t add up.”
In total, there are 295 school districts in Washington. The report’s authors say they studied 28 that “represent the diversity of school districts across the state” in terms of enrollment, location, ethnic composition and other factors.
Districts spend significantly more money on operational staff, particularly office support and janitorial staff, than the state funds. Forty percent of these employees are hired with more money than is allocated by the state legislature. Districts also spend about 5 percent more on teachers and 11 percent more on teacher assistants or teacher aides than they are allocated by the state.
Employee salaries and benefits account for over 80% of the district budget, and spending on other areas that help districts stay operational has increased even more than personnel expenses.
“The costs of literally everything schools spend money on are rising,” said Jacob Vela, senior policy officer at the League of Education Voters.
Food costs increased 36% between the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years, insurance costs increased 48%, repair costs increased 54%, and natural gas costs increased a whopping 76%.
More than 60% of districts surveyed last school year said inadequate state funding for special education was a “significant and growing challenge.” Although lawmakers increased funding for special education this year, it is still capped at a certain percentage of student population.
The report also notes that districts’ needs are changing as schools become more diverse: In Washington’s schools, students now speak about 50 more languages than they did 15 years ago, Vela said.
“The demands on schools and the services offered to students and families are very different today than they were 20 years ago,” he added.
Students of color, students from low-income families, and English learners have also made up a much larger share of the school population over the past decade. School districts are hiring more staff to meet these needs: From the 2019-2020 school year to the 2022-2023 school year, statewide hiring of social workers increased by 63%.
Washington schools are funded largely by the legislature, although they also receive money from local taxes and the federal government.
In 2012, the state Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling known as the McCleary decision, which found that the legislature had failed in its duty to adequately fund public schools. As a result, lawmakers changed the way schools were funded and increased their funding.
However, the report suggests that Washington is still not complying with the McCleary decision.
“The Washington State Supreme Court has clearly ruled that special education and competitive wages for K-12 staff are part of ‘basic education,'” the report’s authors wrote. “Yet many districts use local levies to pay staff salaries and fund special education for students.”
“Many superintendents shared that they believe that the way districts rely on local levies has recreated the conditions that led to the McCleary ruling,” the report said.
This is a problem for rural schools that don’t have much tax money, Vela said. Some of the rural schools surveyed feel they are becoming “feeder schools” for larger schools: newcomers to the profession gain experience at rural schools and then move on to larger schools because of the salary.
“It’s a troubling combination of factors that we need to be aware of,” Vela said of the current state of school funding.
In a statement to the Standard, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction said there was “no question that the Legislature has made significant progress in funding our public schools, consistent with the McCleary decision,” but the investments made had “only temporarily filled the hole left by past budget neglect.”
“We all feel the impact of inflation, and schools are no exception,” the office said. “Our state still has a lot of work to do. Superintendent (Chris) Reykdal’s budget and policy requests for the 2025 legislative session will aim to address these financial challenges.”
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