by Rene Price
December 23rd, 2025
Governor Ferguson has released his supplemental budget proposal for the second half of the July 2025–June 2027 biennium. Proposed education funding indicates modest overall growth alongside significant internal reallocations. Investments prioritize targeted student supports, particularly for some of Washington’s most vulnerable students. At the same time, the proposal reduces inflationary adjustments, scales back several opportunity-access programs, and tightens administrative capacity. While changes in a supplemental budget are implemented incrementally, several of these shifts are structurally consequential for school districts.
Potential impacts for highly capable students include:
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Continued reliance on local levies to support program implementation and professional learning
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Reduced access to Running Start coursework
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Decreased support for effective new educator induction
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Reduced access to leadership development for current and future administrators
The proposal also limits OSPI’s capacity to provide district support, oversight, and program development, even as implementation expectations continue to grow.
Broadly, the budget provides further evidence of this familiar challenge facing Washington’s education system: districts and agencies are expected to meet increasingly complex student needs and legislative requirements while baseline funding grows more slowly than costs. This may help stakeholders across the system recognize that enrollment-based funding models and un-resilient revenue streams undermine our state’s ability fully, amply, equitably, and sustainably fund high-quality education.
I hope we will all actively engage in advocacy to strengthen funding structures and education systems that support healthy learning and development for every student, including highly capable learners.
You can read State Superintendent Reykdal’s response to Governor Ferguson’s budget proposal in The Seattle Times and on OSPI’s website.
