{"id":108213,"date":"2026-02-11T08:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/?p=108213"},"modified":"2026-02-11T10:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:34:33","slug":"wa-income-tax-education-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wa-income-tax-education-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"WA Schools Superintendent Pitch: Spend income tax on education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is calling for the state to use revenue from a newly proposed income tax<\/a> to pay for public schools and higher education.<\/p>\n

He laid out his vision for spending the money on Thursday. His proposals come two days after lead Democrats in the House and Senate\u00a0unveiled legislation<\/a>\u00a0that would levy a 9.9% tax on personal income over $1 million.<\/p>\n

Estimates indicate the tax will raise around $3.5 billion a year.<\/p>\n

Reykdal is calling for over $1.6 billion of new annual spending for education and $1.4 billion in cuts to property taxes \u2014\u00a0a key source<\/a>\u00a0of revenue for schools. Under his proposal, around $350 million in estimated income tax revenue would be left over each year, he said.<\/p>\n

Reykdal said he wants to see the income tax approved, even if lawmakers don\u2019t embrace his spending ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would make enormous progress for the state,\u201d Reykdal said.<\/p>\n

Washington does not currently tax personal salaries or wages. The income tax bill remains a work in progress. Even assuming lawmakers approve the tax, it will likely face a lawsuit and be put on the ballot for voters to decide. And it\u2019s not expected to generate payments until 2029.<\/p>\n

Below is a breakdown of some of the spending Reykdal is advocating for.<\/p>\n

K-12 education<\/h4>\n

The biggest chunk of Reykdal\u2019s proposal, an estimated $861 million annually, would go to funding and expanding basic K-12 education. This includes about $306 million for special education. Currently,\u00a0special education is funded at around $2 billion a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are racing towards a constitutional crisis again in basic ed,\u201d Reykdal said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time<\/a>\u00a0Reykdal has made such a warning, suggesting the state could fall out of compliance with a state\u00a0Supreme Court mandate<\/a>\u00a0to ensure ample funding for basic education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lack of investment issue,\u201d he added on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Reykdal wants to increase overall education funding to help cover inflationary costs and to expand services, including $150 million for providing access to universal school meals. He\u2019s also looking to direct $147 million from the income tax to a bucket in the state budget that covers school materials, supplies and operating costs. Substitute teachers, transportation and bilingual programs are among the other areas where he\u2019s looking to funnel some of the cash.<\/p>\n

Higher education<\/h4>\n

Reykdal stressed the importance of supporting young people pursuing college and other postsecondary degrees. The cost of higher education is the largest barrier, he said. He proposed $760 million to fund two years of college tuition or other technical or trade programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite historic investments in financial aid for very low-income people, that\u2019s not the bulk of folks who seek this support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dual credits<\/h4>\n

The proposal also calls for $57 million to fund college-level courses that high school students enroll in. Over a million Washingtonians have some college credit, but no degree. This funding would advance the state closer to its goal of 70% of adults ages 22 to 44 having a postsecondary credential.<\/p>\n

Property tax<\/h4>\n

Reykdal proposed cutting $1.4 billion in property taxes a year for the first $300,000 of home ownership. As is, property taxes fund public schools, but Reykdal sees the income tax proposal as an opportunity to trade out funding mechanisms and save money for working-class families.<\/p>\n

He said there\u2019s time to work out where money from the income tax would go, but urged the state to \u201cdo something radically different\u201d and \u201cinvest in a way that has never ever been done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This article has been reposted with permission from the Washington State Standard, part of\u00a0States Newsroom<\/a>, the nation\u2019s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization and committed to shining \u201ca light on policy and politics in all 50 states.\u201d\u00a0Click here to support nonprofit<\/a>, freely distributed, independent local journalism.\u00a0Read\u00a0this article<\/a>\u00a0and others\u00a0online at Washington State Standard.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Reykdal calls for billions in new spending for education and property tax cuts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":108218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[772,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWashington Income Tax Proposal to Fund Public Schools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WA Superintendent Chris Reykdal proposes using a new income tax to fund K-12 schools, higher education, and cut property taxes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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