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March 10, 2025

Act Now: Attend town halls and demand legislators prioritize K-12 funding

Education Funding Crisis: Students across the state need your help!

To invest in our future, we must invest in education, yet districts across our state are struggling financially. Funding from our legislature has not kept up with the true costs of education. Our students will continue to be impacted by the loss of staff, programs, and critical services in our schools. Six of Washington’s 295 districts are in binding conditions; with dozens more likely to declare financial hardship. The legislature must meet their constitutional duty to fully fund basic education and give Washington’s over 1 million students the educational opportunities they deserve.

While the session began with some promising bills, the House has stripped their bills to the point that they don’t even come close to closing the funding gaps, and the Senate school operating costs bill offers just a fraction of what’s needed. The good news is that legislators still have an opportunity to continue to move and amend these bills and put back the funding they took away. To make that happen, we need to advocate.

We Must Act Now

Many legislators will be holding town halls over the next few weeks to check in with their constituents. Parents, school board representatives, teachers, students and community members must attend the town halls and demand that legislators prioritize K-12 education funding and restore bills’ funding levels to close gaps in special education, Materials, Supplies & Operating Costs, and student transportation.

Can Washington’s kids count on YOU to attend? (Yes YOU. No matter your legislative district, your voice matters!)

Advocacy is a numbers game so let’s bring the numbers.

WSPTA is the largest volunteer nonprofit organization in the state; we have over 80,000 members and thousands more supporters of our school communities. We need to remind legislators that there is overwhelming support for funding basic education. We should be packing these town halls and underscore that we are watching and will hold them accountable.

If your town hall is in person, consider having your whole group wear the same color. If it’s on Zoom, consider having matching backgrounds. If it’s on the phone, consider explicitly saying how many of your fellow education advocates are on the call.

Introduce yourself in a way that highlights just how many Washingtonians are impacted by the education funding crisis and just how influential PTA can be. It might go something like this: “Hello, I am one of your constituents. My name is [XYZ]. I came here with [X] of my fellow parents from [PTA name]. We are reporting back to our membership of [number of people] who all want our schools fully funded.”

The WSPTA Advocacy Committee is here to help you.

Legislative advocacy can feel intimidating or confusing at times. We get that and want to support you. Advocacy Committee members are happy to help you prepare for your town hall and answer any questions you might have. We can also help you tailor your advocacy to your legislative district. We are friendly, we promise.

Have questions? Contact ptaadvocacydir@wastatepta.org.

Have translation or other accessibility needs? Let us know at ptaadfocacydir@wastatepta.org and we will work something out.

Find Your Town Hall

First, find the legislative district(s) your school community draws from with these tools:

District Finder

School-District-x-Legislative-District-2025-2-1-2025.xlsx

Then, find your townhall:

House Democrats town hall meetings

House Republican town hall meetings 

Senate Democrats town hall meetings

Senate Republicans town hall meetings

Don’t see your legislators listed? Ask for a meeting.

What to Do at the Town Hall

Make our voices heard but always be respectful especially if emotions are running high. This a core value of PTA and a cornerstone of our strategy to build long term relationships with decision makers. Don’t worry if you’re new to legislative advocacy; you do not need to be a policy expert and we don’t have to have all of the answers, we just need to make sure our legislators know how much we care about education funding and how many of us there are.

Ask these questions, fill the Q and A if there is one, and make your concerns known! Personal stories are always useful as they help our legislators understand the true impact of the school cuts.

Talking points and sample questions

Special Education: $558.7 million statewide shortfall

Sample Questions:

  1. Last year, the state underfunded special education costs across the state by $558 million, and most districts had to spend their enrichment levies to make up this deficit. And that includes my school district. The bills currently moving through the legislature – particularly in the House – do not provide sufficient funding to cover the special funding gap. Will you commit to helping our schools by fighting for additional funding?
  2. Special education is part of basic education.  Not fully funding special education is an equity issue because these students are entitled to the same basic education as their gen ed peers and yet these students and their families are made to feel othered and that asking for funding so that their students have equitable access to the same education as their peers is a burden.  Families should not be made to feel that way. Districts are required to provide the necessary tools, accommodations, and staff that can implement their specially designed instruction, but they have to use enrichment levies to fill the gap when that should be the role of the legislature to provide that funding in the first place.  Sometimes IEPs are written where they are trying to limit the costs of meeting student needs because the district knows they don’t have the money and then families have to fight for those accommodations and if a family doesn’t have the ability to, then their child suffers.  Families shouldn’t be put in this position in the first place if special education was fully funded.  Can you share with your colleagues the impact on our students and families with disabilities when their basic education needs aren’t met and support fully funding special education so ALL students in Washington can get the same basic education they’re entitled to?
  3. PTA supports legislation this session that would remove the cap on enrollment, increase the student multiplier, lower the safety net threshold for high cost students, and support inclusionary practices for students with disabilities. The House bill (HB 1357) only would increase the multiplier, and the increase is so small it won’t make much difference. Will you take back a message and tell your colleagues that any special education bill must have all of those elements and close the funding gap?

Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC): $613.7 million statewide shortfall

Sample Questions:

In my district school, we are facing critical budget shortfalls (add numbers for your district if you have them or look them up on the AESD data tool) due to the rising costs of insurance and utilities and other materials, supplies and operating costs. We increasingly are challenged to keep the lights on, schools staffed and the doors open. We are backfilling those costs with levy money because of the state’s refusal to give districts money for non-negotiable basics like heat, water and legally required insurance. This is not right or sustainable. Neither the Senate or the House MSOC bills will cover these very basic operating costs. Are you aware that the House bill would only add $5.55 NEW money per student, and the Senate bill would only add about $72? Can we count on you to step up and make sure the amount is closer to $300 per student?

I’m sure you’ve seen the increased costs for eggs in the grocery stores – or at least seen the memes. Take that inflation, and think about my school district’s insurance, which is also market driven. Districts do not have an option to not pay their insurance bill or utility bills, for example. Can we count on your to step up and make sure the state funds MSOC with more than equivalent of a cup of coffee or a couple of dozen eggs per student and instead add funds to cover the true costs?

Legislators Write the Budget and We Expect Them to Do Their Constitutional Duty

Sample Question:

We are here because you represent us, and we know that you care about families and children in our district. We need you to address school funding now, today, in this legislative session, as the leaders we know you to be, not contingent on additional revenue, or what other legislators do, or what the governor chooses. Will you stand up and be a champion for full funding for our public schools?

We have watched our district make cuts and more cuts, over the last several years, and this has resulted in the loss of ___ that is important to me and my children. We are tired of hearing that our district is not being fiscally responsible, when the problem is that there is not enough funding to adequately meet the costs of the education we want for our children. Will you commit to significantly increasing the allocations in the school funding bills under consideration and help our district and others close their budget gaps and meet the needs of our students?

Need help tailoring your talking points to your legislative district? First town hall experience and have the jitters? Just have questions in general? The WSPTA Advocacy Committee is here to help you. Email ptaadvocacydir@wastatepta.org.

Responses to legislator pushback

If legislators say “Pressure the governor’s office” we say, the Legislative branch writes the budget not the governor. You need to step up first and make sure that whatever budget is proposed includes sufficient funding for K-12 schools.

If legislators say “We can’t do this without progressive revenue” we say, WSPTA supports progressive revenue but it is Washington’s paramount duty to amply fund basic education; not Washington’s paramount duty to fund basic education if and only if there’s progressive revenue.  Basic education is part of the underlying budget, and you must prioritize and fund that first. Progressive revenue should support programs that are needed but are NOT constitutionally required.

If legislators say, “I’m not on the budget committee,” we say, You have a vote on the budget when it comes to the floor. We are asking you to speak up in caucus, talk with your legislative colleagues, and commit that you won’t support a budget that doesn’t close the funding gaps this session.

If legislators say, “The education budget is already more than half of the state budget,” we say, we wish that were accurate. Federal funding that expired last September masked the fact that state investments in K-12 weren’t keeping pace with inflationary costs and current policies artificially cap the amounts to support services for students with disabilities.

If legislators say there’s already enough funding and districts aren’t being fiscally responsible, we say according to the AESD there is an $89.6 million gap in transportation funding, $613 million gap in materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC), and a $559 million gap in Special Education. No amount of fiscal responsibility can dig districts out of that hole. We call on you to do your constitutional duty and put back the funding you stripped from these bills.

How to learn more and stay involved

 

Category: Advocacy , Legislative
Tags: Advocacy , Advocacy in Action! , Focus on Advocacy
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