Every legislative session involves difficult decisions. Lawmakers must balance competing priorities while ensuring the state remains fiscally responsible. But when the 2026 legislative session ended in Olympia, it became clear that the people who lost the most were Washington’s children, parents and students.
The Legislature approved an operating budget exceeding $80 billion for the 2025-27 biennium, even as lawmakers acknowledged a growing budget deficit projected to exceed $4 billion over four years. Despite that looming deficit, the budget represents an 11% increase over the previous biennium and 3% higher than last year’s spending, which already included the largest tax increase in Washington state history.
Washington is not suffering from a lack of revenue. In fact, the state has more revenue available today than it did in the previous biennium. The problem is not revenue. It is spending and misplaced priorities.
Instead of prioritizing families, education and programs that help children succeed, the majority in the Legislature chose to fund major increases in state employee compensation and to expand costly new environmental programs. To make those choices work, the final budget relied on tax proposals, accounting maneuvers and reductions to programs that directly support students and working parents.
The result was a troubling pattern: early learning programs were reduced, K-12 investments were trimmed, child care assistance was scaled back, and other family-focused programs were put at risk.
One of the clearest examples was the reduction to Washington’s Transition to Kindergarten program. The final operating budget cut approximately $27.3 million from the program by reducing funded slots by about 25 percent, dropping statewide capacity from 7,266 students to roughly 5,450 students beginning in the 2026-27 school year. If these funding levels continue, the four-year reduction would total approximately $102.2 million.
Reducing access to a program that demonstrably improves student readiness moves Washington in the wrong direction.
Public education, more broadly, also felt the cuts to offset the majority’s growing spending commitments. The final budget includes roughly $80 million in reductions affecting K-12 education programs and services statewide. Despite being the “paramount duty of the state,” K-12 now accounts for only 42.2% of the state budget — the lowest share dedicated to public schools since 2011.
These cuts come at a time when schools are already struggling with rising costs, obligations to comply with the Climate Commitment Act, staffing shortages and growing student needs.
Even the very successful Running Start program was reduced in the final budget, affecting students and families who look to the program as a way to get a jump-start on a college degree while still in high school.
Property-poor school districts were also impacted by reductions to Local Effort Assistance (LEA) funding, which helps equalize school funding for communities that cannot raise as much revenue through local property tax levies. The final budget reduced LEA funding by approximately $25 million.
When LEA funding is reduced, school districts must cut programs, reduce services or ask local taxpayers to shoulder a greater share of the burden.
Working parents were also affected through major reductions to the Working Connections Child Care program. The final budget includes roughly $143 million in reductions through changes such as reducing future reimbursement rate rebasing from the 85th percentile of market rates to the 75th percentile, repealing enhanced regional rates for several counties, including Clark County, adopting attendance policies that only provide partial reimbursements based on actual attendance, and repealing prospective payments.
For thousands of Washington families, this program determines whether parents can go to work, pursue job training or continue their education.
The budget also included reductions tied to Medicaid funding and reimbursement rates for health care providers. Hospitals across Washington warned that additional cuts could force reductions in services and limit patients' access to care, including children and low-income families who rely on Apple Health.
When health care funding shrinks, access to care often shrinks with it.
House Republicans offered amendments to both the operating budget and proposed income-tax legislation that would have prioritized maintaining funding for early learning, child care and K-12 education programs. Amendments were offered to restore funding for Transition to Kindergarten, maintain support for Working Connections Child Care, and protect funding for property-poor school districts through Local Effort Assistance.
Unfortunately, those amendments were rejected by the majority.
I believe budgets are more than spreadsheets. They are statements of priorities, and I believe the Democrat majority’s priorities are wrong for Washington.
To build stronger families, communities and our state, we need priorities that are community-up, not Olympia-down. That means investing in the next generation of Washingtonians by supporting working parents, children who need early learning opportunities, and students who rely on our public schools to prepare them for the future.
If lawmakers are serious about building a stronger Washington, they should start by protecting the people and programs that give children the opportunity to succeed. The state budget should never be balanced on the backs of children and families.
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Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, represents the 20th Legislative District and is the House Republican Caucus chair.
