OLYMPIA, WA – The Senate narrowly passed a bill Tuesday to reduce and delay some education payments to save Olympia money, despite plans to expand state spending by $2 billion amid a deficit.
Senate Bill 6260 passed by a rare 25-24 vote, with six Democrats joining Republicans in opposition. The proposal now heads to the state House for consideration. If approved, it would implement some of the reductions Democrats promised in their supplemental operating budget proposals, but at a cost.
Both chambers proposed budgets that would increase spending by roughly $2 billion by raising taxes and drawing on reserves, including much of the state’s rainy day fund. While the majority party claims that the budgets include difficult cuts, Republicans argue that Democrats are just restructuring their priorities.
SB 6260 balances some of the deficit at the expense of public education; Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, confirmed Tuesday that her bill would “surgically carve out funding” from the education system.
“As chair of Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee, this is probably the most challenging bill that I’ve had to bring before us, but we are in challenging times,” Wellman said on the Senate floor. “We’ve looked at the programs that we’ve created over a period of years, and tried to skinny some of them.”
According to a fiscal note, SB 6260 would reduce the state’s obligations to the public education system by $31.8 million in 2025-27, $70.6 million in 2027-29 and $74.3 million in the 2029-31 biennium.
The first thing SB 6260 would do is adjust the state’s reimbursement schedule for buses purchased by school districts as the vehicles depreciate. It would extend the reimbursement timeline by assuming longer lifetimes, spreading state payments over a longer period to fill the deficit.
Under the proposal, the assumed lifetimes for smaller buses would increase from eight to 10 years, while those for larger buses would increase from 13 to 15 years. If a school district receives federal funding for a bus, the Legislature would also reduce its reimbursements by that much.
“This will keep buses older, buses on the road longer, which will tend to have more CO2, which will tend to pollute more,” Sen. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, said in opposition. “So I really don’t like this.”
The next thing SB 6260 would do is reduce funding for the Running Start program, which allows high school students to earn credits by enrolling in college courses. The state’s basic education framework defines a full course load as 1 Full-time Equivalent. The state increased the funding cap from 1.2 FTEs to 1.4 FTEs in 2023, allowing students to earn more credits; SB 6260 would reduce the cap back to 1.2 FTE next fall.
Harris called the bill title “mischievous” for labeling the cuts as “efficiencies” in the education system.
Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, said the program allows students to leave high school with an associate’s degree, which many families can’t afford without the state. Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, said it’s paying dividends for the state, and argued that the bill could upend some students’ success.
“We’re going to be right to the point where students are just about ready to graduate from, say, HVAC classes, and then we’ll be pulling the rug out from underneath them,” he said. “They put the time in. They went to the school, they went to the classes, and at the last minute, the carpets pulled out from underneath them, and they’re now expected to find the money somewhere to finish these classes.”
The last thing SB 6260 would do is allow school districts to charge tuition and fees for the transitional kindergarten program, a pre-kindergarten style class for 4-year-olds, except for children with disabilities. Olympia codified the program in 2023. Harris said the bill could impact 7,000 slots that the state subsidizes.
Wellman recognized the program has been successful, but argued that challenging times require this.
“I hope that it gives our team something to work with as we go to find our final budget,” she said.
