Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

PUBLIC EDUCATION
After many years of work, our state is finally on the path to adequately funding the smaller class sizes, all-day kindergarten, operating costs like technology and textbooks, teacher salaries, and everything else that constitutes a basic education as defined by the Legislature. As capital budget writer in 2018, David helped fund a historic, $1 billion investment in K-12 school construction in Washington, including $36 million for Seattle Public Schools.
Once Democrats took over the Senate in 2018, the Legislature was able to fulfill its duty to the young people of our state by implementing a new plan to fully fund public education. The Washington Supreme Court acknowledged this progress in its final ruling in the McCleary case, ending Court oversight. David worked tirelessly over the past years as a member of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Education Funding and with the K-12 team in the Legislature to get to this point, including by co-sponsoring legislation that jump-started funding discussions in 2014.

Yet this is not the end of efforts to make sure that all children thrive. David will continue to advocate for lowering class size in the early grades, providing all-day kindergarten and early learning, closing the achievement gap, providing adequate compensation to our educators, and improving funding for and access to special education.

HIGHER EDUCATION
David has long been one of our state's strongest advocates for improving access to higher education. He wrote the capital budget of 2018, which will invest $860 million in higher education projects, including $3.4 million for the North Seattle Community College library building renovation. The budget also provided for several capital investments for the University of Washington, including Parrington Hall at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, the new Population Health Center, the Magnuson Health Science Building and the completion of funding for the Burke Museum.

David was instrumental in the 2018 passage of the DREAM ACT 2.0, which fulfills a promise made to DREAMers in 2014 that all Washington kids ought to have the full range of educational opportunity offered in this state. He has also helped pass legislation to reduce college costs and expand vocational and apprenticeship programs to ensure that all have a path to higher education and career opportunities. And he has worked to stabilize college tuition rates, to protect the Guaranteed Education Tuition Program for middle class families, to maintain work-study and other financial aid programs, to strengthen the College Bound investment, and to provide more information to students on how to manage student debt. He was recognized as a Legislator of the Year by the Washington Student Association in 2012.

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