This year a bipartisan coalition of state legislators worked together to provide an historic investment in our state’s K-12 education system, boosting school spending by $1.3 billion, an increase of $1,237 per student.
After every experience, good or bad, there are lessons to be learned. I am proud of Washington’s new two-year budget that added $1 billion to K-12 education, did not raise tuition at our state’s colleges and required no new general taxes.
As Washington’s K-12 and university students begin this new academic year they are no longer captive to a public-education system struggling to meet basic needs and receiving a declining share of the state budget.
A fragile local economy and lack of improvement in our state’s education system were the status quo when a bipartisan group established a governing coalition in the Washington state Senate this past December.
As the weeks became months for those of us crafting the Senate operating-budget, and the plan itself crept closer to the 400-page mark,
