2023 Legislative Priorities
-
On January 31, 2023, the Mukilteo School Board met with legislators from the 21st, 38th, and 44th districts to review legislative priorities for 2023. The Board explained the "perfect storm" of factors leading to a potential budget reduction of $20 to 25 million in the coming year including:
- Decreased enrollment
- Lingering McCleary Case outcomes
- Inadequate state funding
- End of one-time federal funding
To help mitigate these factors, the Board asks the Legislature to fully fund special education, provide equitable resources for staffing and unfunded mandates, support basic education compensation, fix student transportation funding, and invest in learning recovery. Some of these requests require changes in approach and all require additional funding.
Below, you can read about each of the priorities as well as view or download the document presented to legislators.
Also, if you would like to contact your legislator to share your thoughts on school funding, you can look up your state and congressional district on the Washington State Legislature website.
-
Fully fund special education
We are asking legislators to fully fund special education. Mukilteo School District spent $9 million from local levy funds in 2021-22 and is slated to spend $13 million, or 8 percent of the district’s general budget, for special education costs this year to support and provide services to students.
-
Provide equitable resources for staffing and unfunded mandates
Funding for critical staff, such as nurses, social workers, counselors and safety and security staffing fell short by $3.1 million last year. Mukilteo School District is urging the Legislature to provide resources to recruit, support, and retain effective staff who reflect the diversity of our student population, including ethnicity and gender. The current funding model does not adequately staff our schools to support basic education and the district pays about 40 percent of salaries from local sources such as levies. In addition, school districts have been required to do more but without additional funding.
-
Support basic education compensation rebase
Current law requires the Legislature beginning in 2023 to regularly review and adjust minimum staff salaries to ensure salaries align with actual staffing costs. Due to regional adjustment changes, the loss in revenue for our district is $12 million.
-
Fix student transportation
Mukilteo School District will experience a transportation funding shortfall of $1 million for the 2022-23 school year because of how the state currently funds student transportation.
-
Invest in learning recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the long-term use of remote learning, which was detrimental to many students. The 2021 Legislature supported learning recovery with one-time funds, but the critical need still exists. Ongoing resources are needed to expand learning opportunities for tutoring, additional instruction time and to offer more student supports to address long-term impacts from the pandemic.
