Ahead of the Aug. 6 primary, we spoke to the four people most likely to win their parties’ nominating contests for governor: Bob Ferguson and Mark Mullet on the Democratic side and Dave Reichert and Semi Bird on the Republican side. We asked them how the state should fund education and what they would do about the youth mental health crisis, school safety, child care and Washington’s low college-going rate. Before diving into the candidates’ answers, here’s a brief overview of how these issues are affecting Washingtonians:
Six years ago, a long-running saga over the state’s role in funding education came to an end when the McCleary lawsuit, which sued the state over insufficient education funding, was settled. It led to a historic increase in K-12 dollars in the 2018-2019 school year, but it didn’t fully fund the educational needs of Washington students and didn’t fund districts equitably. The gubernatorial candidates who spoke to The Seattle Times each had their own takes on how to meet this funding obligation.
Meanwhile, during the pandemic, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a youth mental health crisis. In 2022, House Bill 1664 was passed and started the process of increasing investments for more school nurses, social workers, counselors and psychologists. Educators continue to name student mental health as a major concern and individual schools are experimenting with various solutions including adding more social and emotional programming and banning cellphones in the classroom.
Other new initiatives in education have proved more complicated. Despite research showing the social, health and academic benefits of preschool, only 8% of 3-year-olds and 16% of 4-year-olds were served by Washington’s state-funded preschool program last year. The Fair Start for Kids Act was passed in 2021 and will use money from Washington’s new capital gains tax to fund early learning and child care, unless that tax is overturned in the upcoming election. Republicans argue that education would still be fully funded without the tax. Most Democrats are highly skeptical, though some join Republicans in supporting the repeal.
All four Washington gubernatorial candidates said they were concerned about student safety in school, though they differ on what to do about it. Washington saw an increase in mass shootings in 2023. And since 1990, there have been at least 24 incidents of shots being fired in the immediate vicinity of Seattle Public Schools or on school grounds, according to an analysis of news reports. In 2023, assault weapons and high capacity magazines were banned in Washington.
The candidates are also concerned about Washington’s high school graduates attending college at very low rates. Washington’s federal financial aid application completion rate is 44%, one of the lowest in the U.S. Almost halfof kids who graduate high school in Washington do not go on to a 2-year or 4-year college.
Here are some highlights from our conversations with candidates:
Candidate answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Bob Ferguson (D)
Ferguson is Washington’s attorney general. His mother was a special education public school teacher, and growing up he heard her stories of the classroom and developed an interest in education. He attended Catholic schools in Seattle. Before serving as attorney general, he served on the Metropolitan King County Council for almost a decade. He began his legal career in Spokane.
Ferguson’s take
Ferguson wants to protect the capital gain tax, maintain teacher salaries and send more money to districts that serve higher percentages of low-income students. He sees meeting the state’s obligations under the McCleary decision to be a key element in setting his education funding priorities.
“Since McCleary, the percentage of our budget that goes to education has gone down since that case [about state education funding] was resolved,” Ferguson said. “That is going in the wrong direction.”
Ferguson listed research-backed education interventions, like tutoring and preschool, as examples of the type of practices the state should fund.
“I’m a believer in going where studies show you can get improved performance with students,” he said. “That strikes me as an investment that the state should increase.”
Ferguson also wants to keep ensuring that schools have enough resources for nurses, counselors and social workers in the face of the youth mental health crisis. He said he’s asked educators across the state what they most need in Washington’s education system.
“The response is almost universal: mental health, mental health, mental health,” he said.
Ferguson pointed to his record supporting bills to invest in preschool, mental health and student safety. As attorney general, Ferguson proposed legislation that banned assault weapons and high capacity magazines. The bill passed in 2023.
“Mass shootings that we’ve seen in schools across the country often involve assault weapons,” he said. “I’m glad we banned those weapons. Same with high capacity magazines. I’ve got kids in high school so I care about this issue a great deal.”
Ferguson also said he was worried about the state’s low college-going rate and low federal financial aid application completion rate. He plans to personally go to high schools as governor to talk about how to complete the FAFSA form for federal financial aid.
“There are opportunities for high school students to receive significant assistance in paying for higher education, but too many high school students don’t know about those programs and don’t know about those funding options,” he said.
Mark Mullet (D)
Mullet is a Washington state senator representing Issaquah, Black Diamond, Maple Valley, North Bend, Renton, Sammamish and Snoqualmie. He’s the vice chair of the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee, where he also serves as the leader on the Senate’s capital budget team, which makes decisions about investments in school construction. He serves on the Senate’s early learning and K-12 education committee. His six kids attend or attended Issaquah public schools, where his wife is a teacher. He grew up attending Tukwila public schools.
Mullet’s take
Mullet said it was time to move from a focus on increasing state education funding to a focus on spending education money well.
“If the initiative [to repeal the capital gains tax] passes, we will still have substantial revenue growth for our 2025 budget, just not as much as currently expected,” Mullet said.
Mullet is also concerned about student mental health.
“I think the crisis is 100% ongoing and is extremely real,” Mullet said.
Mullet worked to pass a bill that ensured school counselors were able to focus on their primary job delivering mental health services to students. He also thinks cellphones in the schools are a big part of the problem.
“I think we should have a state policy that is providing really strong encouragement to have schools have their kids check their cellphones in when they start. I think these things are becoming too big of a distraction to kids learning,” Mullet said.
Mullet believes schools need to be hardened against outside attackers to prevent future shootings. He said schools should be built with single entry points and switches to lock all doors at the same time. He would also like to see the return of school resource officers in schools.
“I think it was a giant mistake in 2020 that you had all these schools remove their school resource officers,” Mullet said. “Garfield High School would be a poster child of this … That was a huge public policy error.”
The officers can build great relationships with kids and help build a safe environment for kids to go to school, Mullet said.
Mullet also believes the state should do more to help students attend college. He sponsored a bill that helped make dual credit programs — where kids earn college credits while in high school — more equitable last year by making the program paid for by the state.
“I have had a firsthand experience of how competitive it is amongst these various colleges throughout our country to attract students,” Mullet said. “I feel really strongly that we have to make higher education an investment priority in our state.”
Semi Bird (R)
Bird is a former Richland School Board member who was recalled by voters when he tried to make masks optional in schools. He retired after 23 years in the military. He’s worked in both the federal government and as a business consultant. He attended Shoreline public schools growing up. He dropped out of high school, but later went on to pursue a bachelor’s and master’s degree and is pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational psychology.
Bird’s take
“It’s a mess,” Bird said about how the state funds education. Bird believes the funding formula doesn’t address schools’ individual needs and that there should be more thorough evaluations at every school to match the true need.
“We can literally streamline, be more efficient, reallocate funds so that the actual dollar need might not be as significant as we think,” Bird said.
He also thinks the pandemic separated students from their natural social and emotional states, causing the current mental health crisis.
“Young people in Washington state did not get the necessary mental health treatment that they needed,” he said. “That is because we don’t have the infrastructure nor the resources, both in school and out of school.”
Bird is supportive of more funding for school counselors but doesn’t want schools to spend money on building health centers on campus.
To keep students physically safe in school, Bird believes children and educators should be taught the “run, hide, fight” model of responding to attackers. He also thinks school buildings should have safe vestibules, doors that lock automatically and cameras and bulletproof windows, among other safety features. He thinks the state needs to focus on social and economic policy to address the root causes of gun violence.
“It’s more than just building our school systems into these security fortresses of protection for our children while we have them there within the walls and the vestibules because as soon as they delve outside of that, that is actually where more of the school shootings take place,” Bird said.
Bird said he would need to do a complete analysis before promising free child care for all. He noted he will be unveiling a comprehensive education reform bill in January 2025, which will include a plan for early learning.
“I am a big fan of early childhood learning,” he said. “Early learning centers are an amazing investment to positively and socially stimulate the minds of young people. I think it’s important we partner with parents and guardians in this.”
For older students, Bird wants to create a Washington center for trades and to see more certification programs in nontraditional industries, like cyber security.
“I just learned differently when I was a young man and I was bored in school,” Bird recalled, saying it was important to tap into what a child loves. “I think there is value in finding out how children work and then discover that capacity that we all have and maximize it so we don’t have to lose children.”
Dave Reichert (R)
Reichert is a former U.S. congressman and former King County sheriff. He had a long career in law enforcement. He attended Kent Public Schools and worked as a football and soccer coach. Reichert told The Seattle Times editorial board that he supports exploring a voucher system where families can put state money toward their child’s education even if that means paying for private school or Catholic school. He also praised charter schools as a good option.
Reichert’s take
Reichert said it was important to spend as much on education as the McCleary ruling dictated. He said his goal would be to make sure 50% of the state’s general fund goes toward education. Now, 44% of the state’s general fund goes toward K-12 education.
Reichert is passionate about funding special education first.
He also thinks it’s time to get a handle on the shortage of mental health counselors and supports state reforms that limit phone and social media use among teens. Reichert hopes to get kids outdoors and interacting with nature and with each other.
“I think you can point to the rise of youth crime in Washington state is disappointing to say the least,” Reichert said. “I think a lot of that is due to social media.”
Reichert plans to reinstate the SRO program statewide if elected governor.
“(Officers) provide an opportunity for students to really learn that police officers are human beings,” Reichert said. “We’re moms and dads, we’re aunts and uncles, even grandparents. We have families and we care.”
When serving in the Sheriff’s Office, he helped to get the gun safe zones around Washington schools.
Reichert is less interested in direct state support for early childhood education and higher education. He finds the K-12 math and reading scores alarmingly low and thinks the state should work to remedy those academic gaps first.
“Right now we need to focus on K-12,” he said. “I don’t think we can add anymore to the K-12 job list.”
Reichert thinks that people aren’t pursuing college because it is too expensive and because students don’t feel safe on campus.
“I think it’s also people examining whether or not I really need a four-year degree in order to do the job that I’m interested in doing,” he said.
If elected governor, he hopes to work toward more trade programs for health and human services jobs like nursing, EMTs and drug and alcohol rehabilitation professionals.
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