Supporting your community’s school system begins at the ballot box | Opinion
As communities across Washington grapple with the reality of education budget reductions adopted by the governor and the Legislature, it is worth pausing to recognize what is happening locally in school districts across Washington state, including Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island counties.
In the face of real fiscal pressure, our school districts are demonstrating steady, responsible stewardship of public dollars — often under circumstances that leave no easy choices.
School boards in all four counties have been asked to make difficult decisions that affect students and entire communities. Board members, elected by their neighbors, are doing exactly what the public expects: asking hard questions, insisting on transparency, and weighing tradeoffs in public view. Their oversight role is not ceremonial. It is active, engaged, and grounded in the long-term financial sustainability of their districts.
Superintendents and district leadership teams across the region deserve equal recognition. They are navigating declining revenues and rising costs while working to protect classroom instruction and essential student supports as much as possible. That work requires technical expertise and the willingness to make decisions that are often unpopular, but necessary.
Local superintendents are approaching this moment with professionalism and a clear focus on students and families.
Behind the scenes, school district budget managers play a critical role that is rarely visible to the public. These professionals are responsible for building balanced budgets, tracking expenditures, and ensuring compliance with complex state and federal requirements. Their work is reinforced by regular independent audits that help ensure public funds are used as intended.
Washington’s school finance system is highly scrutinized, and that scrutiny matters. It protects taxpayers and helps ensure there is little to no waste in school district budgets, where every dollar matters when it comes to student achievement.
Just as important (but too often overlooked) are local labor organizations. Classified staff unions, educator associations, and other employee groups in the region, and across the state, are not outsiders to this work. They are partners. Through collective bargaining and day-to-day collaboration, labor organizations help districts identify inefficiencies, improve operations, and focus resources where they matter most.
Employees who work in schools every day know where systems are strained and where dollars are well spent. Their voice is essential to responsible financial management and to ensuring limited resources are used wisely.
Taken together, this ecosystem of oversight — school boards, superintendents, business officers, auditors, and labor partners — creates strong guardrails around public education funding.
The idea that school districts have received substantial new money over the last decade does not match reality. While there are additional dollars to meet the more complex needs of today’s students, public education funding has shrunk as a share of the state budget, and per-student funding is lower today than it was six years ago when adjusted for the painful realities of inflation that impacts school districts and families.
On top of the financial reality of state funding declining steadily, schools in the North Sound region were particularly harmed by recent legislative budget cuts in early learning via the Transition to Kindergarten program.
When the Legislature makes cuts today, they are felt quickly and directly because school districts have already utilized fiscal reserves and exercised prudent management of scarce resources to ease the pain of high inflation for several years.
That is why this moment also calls for action beyond the control of local boards and school district staff.
Readers should ask their legislators a simple question: If local school districts are doing their part, why aren’t state budget writers doing more to meet their constitutional obligation to fully fund public education?
Budget cuts may balance spreadsheets in Olympia, but they shift real costs to local communities and, ultimately, on to students. Public education is our state’s constitutional paramount duty, it’s not just another number on a spreadsheet!
This year’s legislative elections make that question even more urgent. Voters should challenge every candidate for the Legislature — regardless of party or district — to clearly and publicly pledge their support for stable, adequate public education funding. Not platitudes, not talking points: a real commitment to prioritize schools in the state budget above all other spending.
Leaders in the North Sound are showing what responsible financial management looks like. Now it is time for state leaders, current and aspiring, to meet the moment with urgency and an unwavering commitment to students — from early learning, to K–12, to higher education.
The long-term success of our state will be in exact proportion to our shared commitment to public education.
Chris Reykdal is serving in his third term as Washington’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, where he leads the state’s primary K–12 education agency. He also serves as president of the Council for Chief State School Officers, a national organization that supports state departments of education.