Legislative Issue Brief: Student Homelessness

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Chief Policy Officer, and Aaron Yared, Director of Policy & Advocacy at Building Changes

 

In order for students to be ready for learning, their basic physical, social, and emotional needs must be met. When these needs go unmet, students can struggle to stay engaged in school or even regularly attend school. This is especially true for students experiencing homelessness, who often don’t know where they will sleep week-to-week or if they will have access to enough food to sustain their nutritional needs.

Outside of the years of the pandemic, the number of Washington students experiencing homelessness has seen steady increases since the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction began monitoring the number annually.[1]

 

As the resources needed to support the increased needs of students experiencing homelessness have grown in recent years, state and federal supports have become increasingly uncertain. Read More

Podcast – Gabriela Whitemarsh, 2026 WA state Teacher of the Year

by Arik Korman

In our Putting Students First podcast, we interview students, policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create learning environments where every Washington student feels safe, supported, and a positive sense of belonging, so that they can achieve academically and access the life they choose.

In this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews Gabriela Whitemarsh, the 2026 Washington state Teacher of the Year, who teaches Bilingual Math at Pasco High School in the Pasco School District. Gabriela discusses how her bilingual math program came to be, what outcomes and barriers she has seen for her program, what worked and what didn’t work in her personal education journey, and how she would change Washington’s education system if she were in charge and there were no budgetary constraints.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or Spreaker

 

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Podcast – John B. King on the Teachers Who Change Our Lives

by Arik Korman

In our Putting Students First podcast, we interview students, policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create learning environments where every Washington student feels safe, supported, and a positive sense of belonging, so that they can achieve academically and access the life they choose.

In this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews John B. King, Secretary of Education under President Obama and currently the chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the nation’s largest comprehensive system of public higher education. Secretary King discusses how important it is for every student to have at least one caring adult in every school building, how we can shift mindsets so educators believe that every student can learn, what the value is of public K-12 and higher education, and how he would change our nation’s education system if there were no budgetary constraints.

Secretary King’s new book is Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives. Follow him on Instagram @johnbkingjr and on X @johnbking.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or Spreaker

 

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Podcast – Zaretta Hammond on Culturally Responsive Teaching

by Arik Korman

In our Putting Students First podcast, we interview students, policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create learning environments where every Washington student feels safe, supported, and a positive sense of belonging, so that they can achieve academically and access the life they choose.

In this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, about how culturally responsive teaching supports students in the classroom, how best to embed equity into education in Washington state, what worked and what didn’t work in her own education journey, and how she would change Washington’s education system if she were in charge and there were no budgetary constraints.

Zaretta’s new book, Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power: Teaching for Instructional Equity and Cognitive Justice, will be published in September. Sign up for her newsletter at CRTandTheBrain.com

 

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or Spreaker

 

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2025-2027 Biennial Budget Proposal Side-By-Side

by Arik Korman

By League of Education Voters Policy Team

The Governor’s budget was not included in this biennial budget proposal comparison due to limited budget details available, limiting our ability to provide a detailed comparison between budgets. This stemmed from the transition between administrations during the 2025 Legislative Session. You can read Governor Ferguson’s budget priorities here. Read More

Podcast – Dr. Marcus Pimpleton, Chair of the LEV Board

by Arik Korman

In our Putting Students First podcast, we interview students, policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create learning environments where every Washington student feels safe, supported, and a positive sense of belonging.

In this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews Dr. Marcus Pimpleton, Chair of the League of Education Voters (LEV) Board and Principal at Mariner High School in the Mukilteo School District, about how he bridges cultural divides, how he engages students as a leader, how to embed equity into Washington state’s K-12 system, what worked and what didn’t work in his own education journey, and how he would change Washington’s education system if he were in charge and there were no budgetary constraints.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or Spreaker

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Understanding Washington state’s Complex K-12 Funding Structures

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela

Chief Policy Officer

 

Students at South Shore PreK-8

A top priority for many legislators entering the 2025 Washington state legislative session is to take steps to address the education funding challenges many districts are experiencing across Washington. Changes to almost every major aspect of how we provide funding to K-12 schools have been proposed as a means of addressing the K-12 funding challenges.

Given Washington’s complex funding system, it can be challenging to understand how each proposal may impact districts differently. To help identify how key structures of our funding system work and to build understanding of how student needs impact state K-12 funding, League of Education Voters has created some materials to answer common questions and break down Washington’s complex K-12 funding structures. Read More

Podcast – Kelly Guilfoil, 2025 Regional Teacher of the Year

by Arik Korman

In our Putting Students First podcast, we interview students, policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create learning environments where every Washington student feels safe, supported, and a positive sense of belonging.

In this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews Kelly Guilfoil from the Lake Stevens School District, one of eight 2025 Washington Regional Teachers of the Year, about how her students are doing in the wake of the national election, what worked and what didn’t work in her own education journey, and how she would change Washington state’s education system if she were in charge and there were no budgetary constraints.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or Spreaker

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Thoughts on the Federal Election

by Arik Korman

By Eric Holzapfel

Chief Engagement Officer

 

I find myself in a state of déjà vu. Eight years ago, I stood in my office uncertain about what effects the federal election would have on the clients and community I served. At the time, I was in charge of an immigration program for LGBTQ+ Latinos at Entre Hermanos. Our clients expressed a great deal of fear around the anti-immigrant and mass deportation rhetoric coming from the Trump administration. Over the course of the Trump administration, many policies had dire effects on the clients we served but in turn were successfully defeated, specifically public charge and family separation. Public charge had a particularly detrimental effect on immigrant communities accessing public benefits. And family separation inhumanely, as I personally witnessed working with attorneys at a detention center in Laredo, separated thousands of children from their mothers and families. We also saw great victories on the state level to protect our immigrant communities, including Keep Washington Working (SB 5497) and a slew of successful legal challenges by then attorney general, Bob Ferguson. Read More