Week 9: Legislature Adjourns, Cuts $90 million from K-12 Education

By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org  

The 2026 regular session of the 69th legislature adjourned “sine die” at approximately 8:25 PM Thursday, March 12th.  

House and Senate Democrats celebrated, counting among the “wins” the passage of 9.9% tax on households with an annual income greater than $1 million. ESSB 6346, the new income tax would begin in calendar year 2028, with tax collections starting in 2029. This depends, of course, on the new law surviving court challenges and a possible initiative.  

As shared by Advocacy Director, Megan Larkin, in messaging on this bill: “The intent section promises to ‘Increase state funding for K-12 education in order to improve outcomes for Washington’s students by strengthening high quality instruction and expanding student supports.’  While this sounds great, the intent section is nonbinding and there is nothing in the operative portion of this bill that dedicates money to K-12 basic education. Legislators may claim that this bill supports our schools because it deposits the revenue into the General Fund, which is the main account financing the operating budget. However, increasing funding to the state general fund that supports K-12 (and many other services such as health and human services and the department of corrections) is in no way the same as allocating more money to schools. Moving forward, it is important to let the Legislature know in no uncertain terms that we are not placated by that misleading messaging and that we expect them to increase K-12 funding as promised. Our kids can’t wait.” 

On the final day of the session, legislators passed supplemental operating, transportation and capital budgets. We’ll have more on bills later, but here is a budget summary of the losses and gains in K-12 education specifically.  

2026 Supplemental Operating Budget (Conference Committee, 3-11-26) 

ESSB 6260 – Implementing the cuts to K-12 

ESSB 6260 would implement several of the cuts made to K-12 in the 2026 supplemental operating budget. These include: 

Transition to Kindergarten cut by 35%  

The final budget cuts the 7,266 TTK slots by 35 percent. ESSB 6260 would require OSPI to redistribute the remaining TTK funds to districts located in extreme childcare deserts, as described by the Department of Children, Youth & Families. (See the map here or when using the hyperlink to the map above, on the right select preschool age and state and federal eligible, and on the left click off the not EECAD to get to zip codes considered extreme childcare deserts.)  

As amended, the bill would direct OSPI to prioritize existing districts with TTK programs, but only to fund students who meet one of the following criteria: 

• Students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals or have a household income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level and lack access to licensed childcare; 

• Students who are eligible for the state Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) or federal Head Start program but aren’t scheduled for enrollment in either program;  

• Students who are eligible for or receiving special education services in accordance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and RCW 28A.155; or 

• Students who are English language learners or multilingual learners.  

Proponents of this section of the bill said that districts could protect their existing programs because the Legislature authorized them to charge, on a sliding scale, fees for enrollment in a TTK program. However, districts are prohibited from charging families with students who are income eligible for ECEAP or Head Start or students with disabilities.  

Bus depreciation extended by two years 

The Legislature extended the time for districts to receive depreciation payments to replace buses.  

• For Type A (or smaller) buses, the depreciation time was extended from 8 years to 10 years.  

• For Type C and D buses (the larger ones), the depreciation time was extended from 13 years to 15 years. 

What is the impact of the change? When a district needs to replace a school bus, they pay for it out of the vehicle account based on the reimbursements received from the state over the course of the depreciation schedule. This change means districts will likely keep their diesel buses on the road for an additional two years, increasing both emissions and maintenance costs.

As amended in the House Appropriations Committee Monday, March 9th, for a zero-emission school bus (ZEV), OSPI is directed to adjust the district’s reimbursement payments generated by that purchase by reducing the quote for that category of vehicle to 33 percent of the quote in the 2025-26 through 2027-28 school years. 

The language also states that this change should not be construed as preventing the final depreciation payment from being based on the lowest bid in the appropriate bus category for zero emission buses for that school year. In simple language, when it comes time to replace the ZEV, if the amount of funding received for depreciation isn’t enough to cover the cost of the lowest bid, then the final payment by OSPI shall make up the difference.  

Why does this policy change matter? School districts from across the state took advantage of federal grants and rebates and state grants to replace their diesel buses with zero emission buses. As introduced by House Democrats and then supported by the Senate, school districts that received federal money to purchase their zero emission buses would have completely lost that money in their state depreciation payments, leaving them with less money to replace the bus.  In other words, a school district that purchased a ZEV for $400,000 and used $250,000 in federal grants to buy that bus would only get depreciation payments from the state for $150,000. This policy would penalize districts to doing the right thing and be a huge disincentive for any school district to ever accept another grant to purchase a ZEV.   

Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, worked with me and Climate Solutions on a fix that would reduce the fiscal impact on school districts, sunset the policy after four years, and remove the disincentive to use grants in the future.     

LEA for ALE programs cut by another 8% 

In the 2025 legislative session, the Legislature cut Local Effort Assistance (LEA) funding for school districts that had an average annual full-time equivalent student enrollment multiplied by 33 percent enrolled in an ALE.  In ESSB 6260, the Legislature reduces that total student enrollment to 25 percent.  The savings to the state? A whopping $1.7 million, but this puts further financial pressure on districts that already are struggling. 

Inflationary adjustments for National Board Bonuses removed 

Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, the initial bonus for National Board Certified Teachers will no longer receive an annual inflationary increase. Teachers who have earned their NBCT will receive a bonus of $6,514. Teachers who are national board certified and work in a high-poverty school will continue to receive their additional $5,000 bonus.  

Running Start student FTE reduced 

The House and Senate had proposed reducing Running Start, from 1.4 FTE to 1.2 FTE, basically eliminating the summer Running Start program that has helped some high school students finish their associate’s degree while attending high school. The “savings” from this change would have been $14 million in the current biennium.  

With community colleges and students weighing in, the legislature relented, and for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years, the Running Start rate will be reduced from 1.4 FTE to 1.3 FTE, but only as long as ESSB 6346 (millionaire’s tax) is enacted by June 30, 2026. If the bill isn’t enacted by that date, the Running Start rate would be reduced from 1.4 FTE to 1.2 FTE.