Fri, Mar 31 10:01am
Dear Whittier Families,
I’m writing to encourage you to reach out to Washington State Legislators about school funding issues. Our legislators are currently in a session that will determine our state’s budget for public education for the next two years. The legislature has chronically underfunded our state public schools (see articles from Crosscut and The Stranger), which leads to inadequate staffing and supplies for our students. The issue is becoming more urgent as Seattle Public Schools is facing a budget deficit of more than $100 million, which will force them to make serious cuts.
We need to advocate for the legislature to increase allocation of funds to public schools and increase the state's ability to collect revenue for the schools. See below for a template you can use to send an email to our legislators today.
Thank you for taking the time to advocate for our community!
Email our legislators to encourage support of bills for special education, wealth tax and increasing budget for public schools.
Email addresses for 36th Legislative District
Subject: Eliminate the special education cap and pass a wealth tax for K-12 schools!
Sample Email Text:
I am a constituent with a child in the Seattle Public Schools, and I'm writing because our schools are facing a worsening budget crisis as the state continues to underfund our public schools. Districts across the state are laying off teachers, cutting programs and classes, and even closing schools. This will drive even more families to leave our public schools, making the funding problems even worse.
To solve this, I urge you to do the following with key education funding legislation, whether it is already in your chamber or if it comes to you from the other chamber:
SB 5311: Please advocate to amend this bill to remove the cap on special education funding. While our schools need an increase in special education funding, merely raising the cap from 13.5% to 15% is inadequate and falls well short of what districts actually need to provide programs and services to students.
HB 1436: Please vote yes on the original version of this legislation and reject the proposed substitute. The original version of this bill handles special education funding correctly, eliminating the cap entirely. I ask that you not adopt the proposed substitute, which would phase in the increases over time, failing to meet immediate student and school needs. Our students need this funding now.
SB 5486/HB 1473: Please pass these bills and create a new wealth tax on the richest 2,000 people in our state. Polling shows 67% of Washingtonians support this, so I'm not asking you to do anything unpopular. I also ask you to amend the legislation to specifically allocate at least half of the revenue it generates to K-12 public school districts, rather than simply put it in the Education Legacy Trust Fund.
HB 1238: Please pass this bill to provide free school meals to every child in Washington State, as we did with federal stimulus funding in recent years.
Finally, when the legislature writes the budget for 2023-25, you should provide at least $1 billion more for K-12 public schools and ensure that no district must make any cuts. In addition to passing a wealth tax, you should also raise the capital gains tax rate to 10%, up from its current level of 7%. The public supports making the rich pay more taxes, especially to fund our schools.
Public schools are your paramount duty, and I look forward to you taking action.
Sincerely,
Name
Legislative District 36
Address