School and Medicaid funding worries linger post-session for WA lawmakers

Yahoo

01-06-2025

House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, on TVW's Inside Olympia. (Photo courtesy of TVW)
This article was first published by TVW.
The ink is hardly dry on Washington's new budget and already legislative leaders are anticipating more fiscal uncertainty.
Democrats are focused on threats to health care access if Congress slashes Medicaid funding, while Republicans are warning of renewed legal jeopardy in education funding.
In post-session interviews on TVW's Inside Olympia, House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, warned that a U.S. House-passed budget legislation — if enacted — could force Washington into a special session to make emergency Medicaid adjustments.
'I'm very concerned about the prospects that Republicans in Congress are going to cut Medicaid at a level that's going to lead to a whole lot of people losing health care around the country,' Fitzgibbon said. 'We're not able to insulate ourselves from that entirely.'
He said proposed reductions to federal reimbursement rates, particularly for hospitals and nursing homes, would force tough decisions. 'We would have to come back in special session and we'd have to kick a lot of people off health care and close a lot of hospitals and nursing homes.'
Senate Republican Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, disputed that framing. 'I think there's a lot of fearmongering out there,' he said, adding that the U.S. House plan is 'much more favorable for Washington than what many people thought.'
Braun pointed to proposed eligibility checks, work requirements, and reforms to prevent dual-state enrollment. 'These are things that will not only save the federal government money,' he said. 'They'll save the state government money and allow us to deliver services more equitably to the people that really need it.'
The two party leaders also offered starkly contrasting assessments of whether the new state budget could reignite a constitutional challenge like the 2012 McCleary decision, which mandated that Washington fully fund basic education.
Fitzgibbon defended the budget's approach, saying the state continues to increase total and per-student K–12 funding. 'I don't think that we are relying on local levies to make up the difference in what basic education costs,' he said. 'Those are enrichment levies to cover additional programs.'
He argued that voters had already approved the levy increases and said the budget includes additional money for levy equalization, more formally known as Local Effort Assistance, or LEA, which provides extra state support to property-poor districts. 'That should very much keep the scales balanced between the property-rich districts and the property-poor districts,' he said.
Braun disagreed sharply, warning that the Legislature's move to increase local levy caps could trigger another legal challenge. 'I don't think there's any question. I think you'll have that lawsuit—if you don't have it already—you'll have it before the end of the year,' he said.
'You can't go to a school district across our state and say, 'Can you show me any definitive way that you're not using levies for basic education?' They'll say, 'No way, I can't. We're using it for basic education.''
Outside groups are warning of persistent discrepancies among districts. According to a March 2024 report by the Washington State School Directors' Association, wealthier school districts consistently raise significantly more revenue through local property tax levies, allowing them to offer expanded programs and staff. Lower-income districts often struggle to generate comparable funds, creating disparities in educational access and quality.
Though Washington law imposes a 'levy lid' to limit how much local districts can raise, the system still allows for wide funding gaps. The League of Education Voters, in a summer 2024 analysis, concluded that the state's LEA funding is 'inadequate' to fully offset these disparities.
The report found that districts are increasingly using levies to fund what many parents and educators view as core services—including special education, student mental health, and additional classroom staff—undermining the notion that the state is fully funding a 'basic education.' The result is what the League called 'a patchwork system where access to a constitutionally guaranteed education can depend on a student's ZIP code.'
Braun echoed that view, saying, 'It's undeniably inequitable. This will result in less money per student in some districts and more in others—and that's exactly what McCleary said we could not do.'
Fitzgibbon acknowledged the concern but said it can be addressed legislatively. 'The increase in levy equalization, which was not included in that bill, but is included in the budget, is something I have every expectation we'll be able to put into statute.'