2026 Supplemental Budget Proposal Side-By-Side

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Chief Policy Officer

The Washington state House and Senate have released their 2026 supplemental budget proposals. The 2026 supplemental budget makes adjustments to the 2025-27 biennial budget and impacts funding for the remainder of the biennium, which ends in June of 2027. The amounts below are in addition to funds that have already been appropriated in the 2025-27 budget. All amounts are per biennium unless noted. Read More

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

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

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 – Journalist Ebony Reed on the Black-White Wealth Gap

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.

Black-White wealth gapIn this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews Yale School of Management professor Ebony Reed, a seasoned journalist who is also the Chief Strategy Officer at The Marshall Project, a news outlet focused on the justice system, who discusses the intersection of race and money, how the current Black/white wealth gap compares to the gap after the Civil War, and how we should talk to our kids about wealth. Ebony’s new book, co-authored with Louise Story, is Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.

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

Listen:

Read More

New Report on Education Funding in Washington state

by Arik Korman

We are weeks away from the start of a new school year. Educators are busy preparing for their new students, students are enjoying the last weeks of the summer break, and families are looking forward to leaving the childcare challenges of the summer behind. However, there is an undercurrent of concern from many as the upcoming school year will look different for students, families, and educators in many districts as they have had to make some difficult decisions in response to the budget crises that have been amplified by the drying up of one-time federal stimulus funding.

In anticipation of this challenging time for districts, League of Education Voters undertook a research project during the 2023-2024 school year to better understand district budget challenges. We wanted to understand how our current resourcing approach wasn’t meeting district needs, how student needs have evolved in recent years, and how districts are responding to this challenging time. In Underfunded and Unsustainable, we share findings from in-depth interviews with district superintendents from 28 Washington state school districts and a look at district staffing and spending data to help inform how we can respond and ensure that students are centered as we look to how we can emerge from this challenging time with a system that is more responsive to student needs.

You can read the executive summary and full report here. Read More

Podcast – Bill Dussault on Special Education Law and Next Steps

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 game-changing disability rights attorney Bill Dussault, who discusses how Washington state’s special education law came to be, how Washington’s law impacted federal policy and the creation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, what needs to happen next with Washington’s special education system, and what we in the community can do to help make the necessary changes happen.

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

Listen:

Read More

2024 Supplemental Budget Summary

by Arik Korman

By League of Education Voters Policy Team

 

The 2024 supplemental budget makes adjustments to the 2023-25 biennial budget and impacts funding for the remainder of the biennium, which ends in June of 2025. The amounts below are in addition to funds that have already been appropriated in the 2023-25 budget. In the final budget agreement, all amounts are per biennium unless noted.

Read More

2024 Supplemental Budget Proposal Side-By-Side

by Arik Korman

By League of Education Voters Policy Team

The Washington state House and Senate have released their 2024 supplemental budget proposals. The 2024 supplemental budget makes adjustments to the 2023-25 biennial budget and impacts funding for the remainder of the biennium, which ends in June of 2025. The amounts below are in addition to funds that have already been appropriated in the 2023-25 budget. Read More