Thanks to our community’s collective advocacy efforts, we have achieved a big victory: the state’s biennial operating budget includes enrichment funding for all charter public school students.
Together, we successfully persuaded legislators to equitably support public school students and families, including those who choose charter public schools. This is an historic, precedent-setting outcome as, for the first time, every charter school in Washington will receive enrichment funding to help offset their lack of access to local property tax levies. This one-time funding will narrow the inequity that negatively impacts charter public school students, the majority of whom are members of the Global Majority (i.e., Black, Indigenous, or other students of color) and/or are from low-income households.
Of course, given the temporary nature of this funding, we will still have work to do going forward…
Charter public schools are incredibly grateful for this one-time funding in the budget, but the temporary nature of a budget proviso makes it hard for schools to plan, and thus hard to sustain the enrichment supports students need to continue to grow long-term.
But for now, this critical enrichment funding means that charter public schools can better meet the needs of their students with more robust programming, sufficient staffing, and mental health resources. We’re thankful to legislators for their openness to hearing from charter public school families & communities and working to improve equity in Washington’s public education system!
Thank you to our community of advocates for standing up for all students, especially those who have been marginalized in our systems. Your actions helped narrow inequities in policy that make a tangible difference in the lives and education journeys of young people in Washington.