Blog

Report on state student loan program raises questions about its sustainability

Last week I wrote about HB 1823, which would remove sustainability requirements from the yet-to-be-implemented Washington student loan program. (See that post for details about the 2022 legislation and how HB 1823 would change it.) Instead of specifying program details, the 2022 legislation required the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) to “design a student loan […]

HB 1823 would remove actuarial, sustainability requirements from the yet-to-be-implemented Washington student loan program

HB 1823, which will be heard by the House Appropriations Committee tomorrow, would remove actuarial and sustainability requirements from the not-yet-implemented Washington student loan program. Last year, the Legislature enacted E2SHB 1736, establishing the Washington student loan program. (The program is codified as RCW 28B.93.) The bill left the details of the program to be […]

Should school salary inflationary adjustments be based on estimates of future or past inflation?

HB 1732 and SB 5650 would both specify an inflationary adjustment for school employees for school year (SY) 2023–24 of 3.8%. Additionally, under current law, the inflationary adjustment is the implicit price deflator (IPD) for the fiscal year (FY). Under the bills, beginning in SY 2024–25, the adjustment would be based on IPD for the […]

On OSPI’s monitoring and accounting of federal relief money

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) has found that the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has “not yet established processes to monitor districts’ efforts to address the academic effects of restricted in-person instruction or outcomes of emergency spending”—despite federal and state requirements to that effect. School districts in Washington received three […]

Governor would fund Washington student loan program and shift more of its funding from the general fund to the workforce education investment account

In 2022, the Legislature enacted E2SHB 1736, which creates the Washington student loan program. Many program details were left to be determined later, with recommendations due from the Washington Student Achievement Council by Dec. 1, 2022. (The report has not yet been published.) However, E2SHB 1736 did specify that loans will not be issued unless […]

What inflationary increase will be funded when school salaries are rebased this year?

Although almost half of the new policy spending in Gov. Inslee’s 2023–25 budget proposal would be used to increase employee compensation and provider rates, a relatively small portion of that would be for school employees. The state increased allocations for school salaries as part of its response to the McCleary decision on school funding (beginning […]

School districts in Washington have spent 52% of their federal relief money; of the amount spent, 44.5% is categorized as “indirect” or “other”

Last week the Seattle Times editorial board wrote about recent student test scores and asked why so much of the federal relief money for schools is still unspent. Further, it wrote, “It’s puzzling to examine school district spending choices so far.” There were three rounds of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER). Washington […]

Compensation increases drive the community and technical college system’s budget request

The community and technical college system (CTCS) has requested a 2023–25 budget that would increase its general fund–state (GFS) spending by $622.9 million (39.5%). Compensation items account for 50.8% of the maintenance and policy level changes in the request. First, the request estimates that funding the Initiative 732 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the biennium would […]

K–12 budget request includes major staff compensation increases, elimination of the special education funding cap

For 2023–25, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is asking for a $6.565 billion increase to its general fund–state (GFS) budget. This would be an increase of 25.3% over 2021–23. (Adjusted for inflation, the increase would be 18.7%. That’s on par with spending increases made in response to the McCleary decision on school […]

It’s not clear that decoupling timber revenues from the school construction assistance program would be transformative for K–12 construction funding

On July 19, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) proposed decoupling state timber revenues from the school construction assistance program (SCAP). According to OSPI, this would be a more equitable way to fund school construction. Details are scant at this point, but it would involve a shift of roughly $30 million a year […]