Friends and neighbors,
At this point, I think you all are aware that Washington was facing significant budget challenges during this year’s legislative session. With a shortfall of $12 billion to $14 billion, hard decisions had to be made. We had a few wins and many losses. I would like to talk to you about changes, both bad and good, to funding for higher education and public primary schools.
The unconscionable special education funding cap is no more.
For years, I have been working to end our unconscionable cap on the number of students receiving special education funding. This cap impeded students in special education from achieving their best lives and it created massive funding gaps in the budgets of our school districts.
I am excited to report that Senate Bill 5263 ended this unfair cap and increased special education funding by $775 million. I sponsored the House version of the bill and am glad that we can finally put the unconscionable cap behind us. Our students and schools deserve better.
Taking a big step back in higher education funding.
Unfortunately, funding for higher education and workforce training suffered. College Bound Scholarships and the Washington College Grant saw major cuts. These are Washington State’s nation-leading programs to increase opportunity and access to post-secondary education.
Credit: LSS Photography
Initially, the Senate proposed an 8% increase in tuition for all students and a dramatic reduction in eligibility for the College Grant. Under the Senate budget, students whose families were above 55% of the median income would no longer get a grant to attend college or get workforce training.
I led a small group of higher ed advocates to develop a financial plan that avoided the massive tuition increase and largely preserved College Grants for low-income students and provided some support for students up to the state’s median family income. We did this, in part, by eliminating public tuition support for students attending for-profit schools.
The 1.5% cut to the UW and other colleges and universities is very harmful. This is a $15 million for the UW. Community colleges were cut by over $12 million. These state cuts will be compounded by the Trump Administration’s attacks on funding for our universities, which began shortly after we passed the state budget.
I am concerned about the damage these cuts will impose on students and higher education institutions. We must reinstate funding to previous levels as soon as we can. Our students need and deserve these investments so they can get the education they need to access secure, family-wage jobs. Our businesses and economy need these investments so we can have the workforce required to meet the needs of the future.
I am committed to working with my colleagues in the legislature to find a path to fully funding these important programs.
Thank you for a wonderful town hall meeting.
Thank you to everyone who joined Sen. Valdez, Rep. Farivar, and me for our town hall meeting on June 10th. We had over 100 people attend and had a great conversation. As usual, our district is informed and engaged. Thank you for voicing your concerns.
As always, please reach out to my office if you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns.
Sincerely,
Rep. Gerry Pollet