Ridgefield School District Superintendent Dr. Jenny Rodriquez shared her thoughts as schools across the state are bracing for “tremendous impacts” if the state continues the trend of reducing education funding, implementing unfunded mandates and simply not covering the full cost of basic education after the McCleary decision.
The state Legislature’s short session ended on Thursday, March 12. In the session, a budget was approved that increased spending by the state by over $2 billion. However, education received a massive blow. The state budget cuts transitional kindergarten costs. Running Start is also impacted, and so are bus depreciation schedules.
The impacts are actively felt in classrooms and on district balance sheets already, Rodriquez said. Districts are faced with shrinking contributions from the state while covering rising costs, with local taxpayers increasingly asked to fill the gaps.
“Public education in our state, despite being the paramount duty to amply fund basic education, which is in our state constitution,” Rodriquez said, “we are spending a smaller and smaller percentage of our state budget on public education. So in the last five to six years, we’ve gone from being over 50% as the number one priority of our state constitution — we’re down to about 43% now of the state budget.”
Inflation is also hitting school districts at the same rate as people’s pocketbooks, Rodriquez added. One of the most acute problems is the widening shortfall for maintenance, supplies and operating costs — known as MSOC dollars — at the same time that everyday costs have ballooned due to inflation.
“That bucket of money, in particular, the shortfall is getting bigger and bigger year after year as we continue to see inflation,” she said.
Federal pandemic aid masked the strain for several years, Rodriquez said, but now those funds are gone. She added that the federal aid kept the status quo, but with the money gone, the real impacts of what’s happening with the state funding structure are starting to be unveiled.
“And to be frank, we’re driving the bus off a cliff,” Rodriquez bluntly said. “All you have to do is look around at the state and look at the balance of funds district by district. It’s shrinking, right?”
Special education is another persistent shortfall. Rodriquez added that local taxpayers are picking up a large share of special education costs that the prototypical funding model is not covering.
“2024, so a fiscal year ago, about 20% of the actual costs for special education were not covered by basic education,” Rodriquez said. “And the result of that is local taxpayers are paying those basic education costs.”
The reliance on levies to fund basic education costs have created a cycle of vulnerability for school districts. When voters say no, districts lose not just “extras,” but now basic services.
“Because of inflation and the challenges just everyday people are facing economically, you see people say, ‘Well, I don’t know if I can support that levy or that bond, because I’m kind of tapped out on my property taxes,’” Rodriquez said. “And unfortunately we’re seeing this in some of our neighboring districts.”
Levies are now making up for the shortfall in special education funding and MSOC funding, as well as unfunded state mandates.
Unfunded mandates have risen at a tremendous level. Unfunded mandates are resulting in millions of dollars going toward regulations implemented by the state government, but with no funding means attached.
“Washington state as a state has an incredibly high amount of regulation in all areas, including public education, and you know, all of those things are meant to do good, and they’re all good ideas,” Rodriquez said. “They all sound great to legislators. Unfortunately, when we say yes to every shiny object that comes in front of us, without providing funding to do those things, we are exhausting the system as a whole. … So, it would be amazing if our legislators could really listen to those of us working in public education and identify unfunded mandates that have not been enforced yet and roll those back and even look at some of the current unfunded mandates in place and roll some of those back and allow local districts the flexibility to use the funding that they do have in the way that they see best meets the needs of their communities.”
Another aspect to the mismatch between benefits and state funding are substitute teacher costs. Rodriquez said certified staff get 12 sick days per year, but the state is only funding four days for substitute teachers. She added that school districts must backfill those absences from local dollars. Last year, in the Ridgefield School District, substitute costs ran about $1 million not covered by the state, Rodriquez said.
“So districts are really struggling, and those districts that have had levy failures, double levy failures, they’re not going to be able to provide what we even consider basic education,” she said. “They’re going to have no choice but to cut staff.”
When larger school districts end up cutting staff, Rodriquez added that it can have a domino effect on local economies when people are laid off as they are not spending the same amount of money in grocery stores and elsewhere.
Rodriquez also sounded the alarm about districts slipping into “binding conditions,” which is a school district’s version of fiscal distress. Since 2023, nine school districts in the state have entered binding conditions, but only two have managed to rebound, she added. When binding conditions happen, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) steps in to direct local spending.
Rodriquez critically urged engagement by community members, too.
“My hope is that people will really talk with their elected representatives and share with them the commitment we all have to our state constitution,” she said. “And the commitment to local control of schools and really get our legislators thinking ahead of the next session, ‘What might be some ways for us to provide some relief?’ Again, everything they want to do, everything they’re funding, it’s all good things. But just like we do in our homes and just like we do in our districts, it’s about priorities. And so we’re going to ask them to have different priorities next year.”
Across the region, impacts have already been visible as local districts are implementing cuts, layoffs and program reductions.
Even with community support on two levies, Rodriquez said the school district will keep balancing services and savings, delaying some hires and making hard choices to try and avoid the worst outcomes down the road.
