S-3145.1
SENATE BILL 5812
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By Senators Wellman, Hansen, Alvarado, Frame, Nobles, Pedersen, Valdez, and C. Wilson
Read first time 04/16/25. Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.
AN ACT Relating to investing in the state's paramount duty to fund K-12 education and build strong and safe communities by modifying the state and local property tax authority and adjusting the school funding formula; amending RCW 84.52.0531 , 28A.500.015 , 84.55.005 , 84.55.100 , 28A.150.390 , 28A.150.392 , and 28A.150.560 ; creating new sections; repealing RCW 84.55.0101 ; providing an effective date; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the state's constitutional paramount duty is to make ample provision for the education of all children. The state continues to see growing needs for everything from special education to equitable student supports in school districts across the state. The legislature further finds the current one percent property growth cap has damaged the ability of our schools to adequately educate Washington's children because population and inflation have exceeded one percent regularly over the past decade. The legislature further finds that because costs have exceeded the one percent cap for over a decade, it has damaged local government's ability to adequately invest in public safety, including the recruitment and retention of well-trained law enforcement officers, early intervention, and other strategies to intervene in behavioral health treatment.
The legislature further finds that school funding obligations require an adjustment to levy equalization methods to ensure equitable funding for our state's public schools. Increasing local flexibility requires the state to ensure equitable funding for historically underinvested areas of our state, including rural school districts, mitigating widening funding gaps between schools.