As of early 2025, several Washington school districts are under state financial oversight due to budget challenges, with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) monitoring their financial health through binding conditions or enhanced oversight. Mount Baker School District is under binding conditions, with updates issued through October 20, 2025. The district faces financial distress due to declining enrollment, inflation, and reduced state and federal funding. Prescott School District is under enhanced financial oversight, with a Financial Oversight Committee active as of June 2025. The district has been under state scrutiny since at least March 2024 due to budget … [Read more...]
Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results
From the Washington Policy Institute: https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/reykdal-confronted-by-state-data-blames-partisanship-for-bad-results Pointing to stats from Washington Policy Center's Report Card for Washington's Future showing student spending is up per pupil from $13,775 to $19,163, while student test scores show decline with "about 60 percent not on track for college level learning in math and 50 percent when it comes to English", Q13 reporter Hana Kim asked OSPI chief Chris Reykdal, "What should districts be doing differently that maybe they haven't tried before, what is your guidance on this to maybe turn things around?" Reykdal's answer was to deny … [Read more...]
Olson or Reykdal for State Superintendent of Schools?
Chris Reykdal is running for his 3rd term as State Superintendent of Schools. In his tenure we've seen spending on schools jump dramatically. The McCleary decision resulted in ~52% of he entire state budget going to schools. The latest compiled data from the feds shows: Average per-student funding in Washington state is $18,175, according to 2021-2022 school year budget numbers from fiscal.wa.gov, the state’s revenue and expenditure data website. That compares to the national average of $14,418 per pupil to fund K-12 education, according to Education Data Initiative statistics from last year. We found another site showing more current data: … [Read more...]
FACT CHECK: Is Washington education spending in decline?
From the Washington Policy Institute. Please stop by and take their poll. In a recent presentation, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, claimed that Washington's education spending was "on the decline." The data used to back up that claim looked at the percentage of the state economy being spent on public education funding, comparing the national average of 3.6% to Washington's 3.1%. Does that paint an accurate picture of the whole truth? Using those specific metrics it might be possible to say Washington's education spending is "on the decline," but when you start looking at the broader data, we think that claim starts to falter. For instance, not only … [Read more...]
State Superintendent of Schools Election – Chris Reykdal: What are his positions on issues? Investigative report
Let’s start out by making it clear that we asked Mr. Reykdal multiple times to respond to questions regarding his positions on key issues. He chose not to respond no matter how many times we reached out. His opponent, Ms. Espinoza, did respond. So...we’ve decided to research what he’s said and done in the past 4 years and share that with you. To be clear this is an investigative report and analysis because he didn’t want to respond. Why wouldn’t he respond? Perhaps because he felt that his answers would hurt his re-election? Perhaps he thought he wouldn’t get his responses posted as he wrote them? In any case we believe that people have the right to know where he stands on key issues that … [Read more...]
Washington State Superintendent of School candidate Maia Espinoza’s responses to key questions
We worked with groups across the State of Washington to define questions and issues they want candidates for State Superintendent of Schools to address. We sent those questions to the Espinoza and Reykdal campaigns. We gave both until midnight September 26th to respond after which we would not accept their comments. Why the time limit? We didn't want one candidate to have any advantage by knowing their opponents responses. We emailed both campaigns multiple times. In the end Ms. Espinoza responded but the existing State Superintendent Chris Reykdal never did. Not a single note. So...we bring you the list of questions and Ms. Espinoza's responses. The only other thing we can do is to share … [Read more...]
Washington State Superintendent of Schools – 2020 Candidate positions
Several months ago we reached out to various groups around the State of Washington and asked them for a list of topics/questions they would like posed to the State Superintendent of Schools candidates for 2020. As you know this November sees the re-election bid of the current superintendent, Chris Reykdal. Its been a tumultuous 4 years. We compiled a list of questions for the candidates and emailed them. We gave everyone until midnight June 29th to respond. Almost all did...Chris Reykdal chose NOT to respond. This blog article comprises the responses from everyone else. We'll do a series of articles. This first one is the PDF of each responding candidates answers to the questions. Feel … [Read more...]
Stop the State Take Over of your School Curriculum – Comprehensive Sex Education
Today we bring you a guest article by Nancy Churchill from Ferry County, WA. She offers some information and suggestions for those who are concerned about State Superintendent Chris Reykdal's all out effort to completely restructure sex education in Washington State. Mr. Reykdal's desire is to start teaching "gender identity" beginning in kindergarten. He supports the F.L.A.S.H. curriculum. Please give her article a read and share your thoughts with her and others. Do you know anyone who thinks that the local school board should have final control of the curriculum taught in your schools? The state OSPI is working to take the curriculum control for Sexual Health education … [Read more...]
Washington State Superintendent’s Legislative Budget Plan – Chris Reykdal
On October 9, 2018, the State Superintendent of Schools, Chris Reykdal, issued a Press Release in which he outlined his vision of the future of K-12 education. We would like to dissect his proposals. Click this link to open a web page with the original article: Superintendent Reykdal’s Budget Moves K–12 Education Forward Inclusive and effective learning and teaching. $180 million would increase funding for students with disabilities and provide additional professional learning days for all school staff. Comment: So the increase in spending over the past 5 years, to the tune of additional billions of dollars didn't adequately cover these items? The public has a right to expect … [Read more...]
How does your local school perform?
OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) has released a new tool that allows the user to look at any school in any district in the State of Washington to see how they are performing. In this blog report we'll share the link to the website, explain how to use the tool and then grab some examples from schools in Southwest Washington. You can also ask questions of OSPI and/or make requests and recommendations - we'll share their email address as well. Congress passed the ESSA in 2015 to replace NCLB. ESSA claims to push more responsibility down to the State (but still requires the USDoE to review a plan and approve it...so that claim is false). In 2014/2015 Washington State … [Read more...]
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