2025 Legislative Session Update, Week 1 – New Governor, New Session

Picture of Ben Mitchell

Ben Mitchell

Director of Advocacy & Policy, Foundation for Tacoma Students

Bob Ferguson is officially the governor of Washington.

The first week of the legislative session was occupied by swearing-ins of lawmakers, statewide office-holders, and of course the governor. Jay Inslee gave his annual State of the State speech, which this year served as his farewell address. Our new governor gave his inaugural address, and as these things go, it was a pretty interesting speech. Ferguson comes to the office having been Attorney General, and his speech gave off an assertiveness that comes from having been an executive.

On the policy front, the first week of the session was not too busy. Committee meetings included a lot of work sessions, and hearings for bills that were prefiled before the session kicked off last week. But things will ramp up in the next few weeks. K-12 education occupies a huge chunk of the state operating budget, and increasing K-12 funding levels will probably be the highest profile issue in K-12 policy this year.

Higher education issues are less attention grabbing, but our top priority this session is in the higher education space. After a period of steady momentum for a “college for all” narrative, we’re now in a season of public skepticism about higher education. At FFTS we’re trying to push back on this, and are unapologetic about the importance of college.

There's levels to this

The legislative session flows along according to a rigid session calendar with deadlines and dates for activities. All of the different cut-off dates can be hard to track, and an overly-simplified analogy for the session cut-off calendar is to think of it as a video game with 9 levels:

  • Level 1: Get voted out of policy committee in house of origin (House or Senate)

  • Level 2: Get voted out of fiscal committee in house of origin

  • Level 3: Get approved by Rules committee to move to a vote of the full chamber

  • Level 4: Get majority vote of full house of origin

  • Levels 5-8: Switch to opposite chamber, repeat steps 1-4 over there

  • Level 9: Get signed into law by Governor

For the 2025 session, most bills need to get past Level 1 by February 21, and then the deadline to get through Level 2 is quickly thereafter on February 28. 

We’re firmly in the opening phase of the legislative session with dozens of new bills being filed each day. This initial bum-rush will subside by the first week of February or so, by which point if a bill hasn’t been filed it’s unlikely there will be enough time for it to move forward. 

The first week of the session was an on-ramp for the policy committees covering K-12 education, higher education, and workforce issues. There were numerous bill hearings, but also a good deal of time devoted to work sessions in which lawmakers hear from invited presenters on issues that are relevant and timely to the committee. 

Bills that did get heard this first week were those that were well-worked during the interim period between legislative sessions. The writer Matthew Yglesias describes a dynamic in DC called Secret Congress,” that has some parallels to this interim phase here. We’ll call it Secret Session, in that it’s invisible to the public and media, and it’s when as an advocate you want to try and get your ducks in a row by doing things like:

  • Pitch your idea to lawmakers who might sponsor a bill, ideally a committee chairperson.

  • Work with outside groups and ease any concerns.

  • Find allies in the state bureaucracy.

  • Figure out the angle to pay for your priority.

  • Socialize your priority with other lawmakers.

  • Try to get your idea out there in the media – or maybe not, being under the radar might be helpful.

Doing this kind of work during Secret Session doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s necessary if you want your bill to stand a fighting chance.

Our top priority bills were heard in the first week

Our top priority this session is legislation that will invest in skilled and trusted adults whose purpose is to help students get financial aid, and enroll in a right-fit education program after high school. During Secret Session we helped shepherd bills in the Senate and House, Senate Bill 5164 and House Bill 1136. These bills are slightly different versions of the same legislation, and do two things when it comes to this kind of student outreach:

  1. They invest in more boots on the ground by expanding a promising pilot program that will embed financial aid outreach specialists at 2-year and 4-year public colleges and universities.

  2. They propose an investment in ongoing financial aid training and professional development for adults who work with students in any capacity, and who may not have the technical understanding themselves of financial aid processes.

The cost of tuition or program costs are at the top of the list of barriers cited by students as to why they do not enroll in some form of postsecondary education. And to our state’s credit, we have been responsive to these concerns and can boast that we have perhaps the best and most equitable financial aid programs in the country. In recent years lawmakers have bolstered these programs by increasing income eligibility thresholds, providing grants for non-tuition costs, and automatically enrolling students. 

In a lot of ways we’ve done the hardest part in Washington by creating the state-level entitlement programs that would be the envy of many other states. Senate Bill 5164 and House Bill 1136 complement those investments by focusing on student outreach and navigational support that will help to get those funds into the pockets of more students. 

Both bills had hearings last week in their respective policy committees in the Senate and House, and they look likely to clear Level 1 in the legislative session video game. House Bill 1136 is scheduled for a committee vote tomorrow, and we’re optimistic that Senate Bill 5164 will be scheduled for a vote soon.

Other high priority bills

Bills designated as a “high priority” on our bill tracker are those that intersect directly with our policy platform. Among these bills, K-12 education funding is by far the issue that is getting the most attention so far. We’ll touch on those dynamics in detail, but first, we have a rundown of all the other high-priority legislation we’re tracking. We’ve developed a subjective and unscientific emoji status system, but note that at this early stage in the legislative session it’s hard to read the tea-leaves. Things will get more clear in the next few weeks: (😁 = Very good shape; 🙂 = good shape; 😬 = dicey; 😵 = dead; 🤔 = I have no idea).

  • Senate Bill 5352 and House Bill 1404 – Increasing student access to free meals served at public schools

    • Status – 🙂 (Level 1)

      • Legislation requested by Gov. Ferguson, not yet scheduled for a hearing.

      • What these bills do:

        • Mandates free meals for all public school students in Washington State starting in the 2026-27 school year.

  • Senate Bill 5120 – Expanding the learning assistance program.

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Scheduled for a hearing on January 23

    • What this bill does:

      • Increases funding for the Learning Assistance Program, which provides funding for helping students who are behind academically catch-up.

  • House Bill 1285 and Senate Bill 5080 – Making financial education instruction a graduation requirement

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • HB 1285 will have a hearing on January 23. No hearing scheduled yet for SB 5080.

    • What these bills do:

      • Requires financial education as a high school graduation requirement.

  • House Bill 1273 – Improving student access to dual credit programs

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Not yet scheduled for a hearing

    • What this bill does

      • Improves high school student access to career and technical education programs by enhancing collaboration between K-12 and higher education, developing statewide articulation agreements, and improving administrative systems.

  • Senate Bill 5007 – Supporting students who are chronically absent

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Not yet scheduled for a hearing

    • What this bill does:

      • Enhances training for educators, expands dropout prevention programs, provides grants for community partnerships

  • Senate Bill 5327 – Concerning learning standards and graduation requirements

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Not yet scheduled for a hearing

    • What this bill does:

      • Integrates computer science learning standards into high school graduation requirements.

This will be a dynamic list over the next few weeks as new bills are introduced and we learn more.

Here come the K-12 funding bills

In his annual update on the status of K-12 education in Washington, state Superintendent Chris Reykdal focused on funding, and warned that our state is not meeting its obligation to fully fund K-12 education. There are three major cost drivers that are creating budget pinches for school districts across the state:

  1. Special education

  2. Transportation

  3. Materials, supplies and operating costs, also known as MSOC

Superintendent Reykdal indicated that it would take about $2 billion in new spending in the next budget to close the gap between what the state currently provides school districts, and what districts are actually spending on these costs. 

About half of that new funding is needed for special education. Right now school districts get extra money for each student enrolled in special education, but that extra boost is capped at no more than 16% of all students in a district. This means that if a district has more than 16% of their students enrolled in special education, that they do not get all of the extra funding that they need. This makes removing the 16% cap the top priority for special education funding.

Transportation and MSOC are more straightforward problems driven by inflation and costs for professional services, like bus drivers. 

Here’s a summary of the K-12 funding bills that have been filed so far that address the “big three” funding issues:

 

Materials, supplies and operating costs

  • Senate Bill 5192 and House Bill 1338 – Concerning school operating costs

    • Status – 🙂 (Level 1)

    • SB 5192 will have a hearing on January 22. No hearing scheduled yet for HB 1338.

    • What these bills do:

      • Increases the funding formula for materials, supplies, and operating costs.

 

Transportation

  • Senate Bill 5187 – Providing adequate and predictable student transportation

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Scheduled for a hearing on January 22.

    • What this bill does:

      • Provides additional funding for transportation for students who are homeless, and requires an analysis of overall school district transportation costs and the development of a new model.

 

Special Education

  • Senate Bill 5307 and House Bill 1310 – Concerning special education funding

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • SB 5307 will have a hearing on January 22. No hearing scheduled yet for HB 1310.

    • What these bill do:

      • These are identical companion bills that remove the 16% student enrollment cap for special education funding, and boost the funded amount for each student. They also offer an extra funding boost for special education students who spend more time in a general education classroom.

  • Senate Bill 5263 – Concerning special education funding

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Scheduled for a hearing on January 22.

    • What this bill does:

      • Same as the two bills above, except it does not include the extra funding boost for special education students who spend more time in a general education classroom.

  • House Bill 1267 – Adjusting funded special education enrollment

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Not yet scheduled for a hearing

    • What this bill does:

      • Also removes the 16% student enrollment cap, and mandates oversight to prevent overidentification of special education students.

  • House Bill 1357 – Special education funding and support for inclusionary practices

    • Status – 🤔 (Level 1)

    • Not yet scheduled for a hearing

    • What this bill does:

      • Increases the funding formula for special education students, but does not remove the 16% cap.

Contrasts in Inslee’s farewell and Ferguson’s inaugural

Now former-Governor Jay Inslee and current-Governor Bob Ferguson gave if not quite dueling, at least contrasting speeches last week. As would be expected in a farewell address, Governor Inslee spent most of his speech highlighting accomplishments over the last 12 years. But he also emphasized the stance laid out in his budget proposal. That the way to deal with our state’s budget deficit is not to cut programs or services. 

“Abstract numerical cuts actually mean concrete personal pain,” Inslee said. “Deep budget cuts always, always fall hardest on the people who can’t afford them.”

Governor Ferguson’s inaugural speech struck a more bipartisan tone. He called back to Governor Dan Evans, who was a moderate Republican, and quoted an excerpt from his inaugural address in 1965:

“This administration is not frightened by the word liberal, nor is it ashamed of the word conservative. It does not believe that the words ‘fiscal responsibility’ are old fashioned nor will it ever fear to spend money if money needs to be spent.”

Ferguson called out policies championed by Democrats and Republicans that he agrees with, but did not mention tax hikes. To the contrary, he fairly explicitly criticized Democrats for writing budgets that rely on very optimistic revenue assumptions. 

“The era of assuming unrealistic growth in revenue is over,” Ferguson said. 

But it was not a conservative speech by any stretch. Ferguson emphasized his call for universal free school meals, and of particular interest to us at FFTS, he highlighted a proposal from Representative Julia Reed to require most of our state’s public four-year colleges and universities to admit in-state high school graduates with a 3.0 GPA or better.

But it came off as a new turn at the executive level in Washington, with an emphasis on cost savings and prudence, and meaningful gestures towards Republican priorities. But with a legislature with solid progressive majorities, this sets up a very interesting dynamic for the next few months.