Concerned about Shoreline and Lake Forest Park Schools? Looking for a way to take action and make an impact?  Did you know Washington State currently underfunds public education by approximately $4B?
  • Subscribe to the Shoreline Action Network (SAN) using the black button above.
    • The SAN is focused on legislation, initiatives and levies/bonds that affect school funding in Shoreline and LFP. 
    • Action alert emails are primarily sent during legislative session (January-April) and include quick and easy ways to communicate with legislators and keep public education at the top of their priority list. 
    • Not seeing the weekly SAN emails? Check your junk folder!
    • Learn more about how the Shoreline Action Network operates here 
  • Keep reading below to learn about how to contact state and federal legislators directly.
  • Join your local PTA board and consider being on their advocacy committee or join the Shoreline PTA Council Advocacy Committee​​.
  • Also consider subscribing to Washington State PTA Action Alerts and National PTA Alerts.
  • Stay informed by attending upcoming School Board meetings or watch/read past School Board meeting minutes/agendas.
  • Email: [email protected] with any questions

Latest Local Update:

  • The reduced education plan (REP) was approved at the May 6, 2025 School Board meeting. 
  • Although legislative session has ended, it is still vital to tell our local legislators how underfunding is affecting our district. Read below for tips on how to do that.
  • The targeted reduction amount is $6.5M for the '25-'26 SY. Closed door union negotiations are taking place to reach the $5M in reductions still needed after $1.5M in non-contractural positions are reduced.
  • Calculations from the 2025 legislative session are still being confirmed but it is estimate that SSD gained $1.1M in revenue which will lower the targeted reduction amount once finalized. 
  • A supplemental levy will be on the ballot for Shoreline and LFP voter approval on August 5th with the potential for $7.25M ($3.8M for '25-'26 SY and $3.45M for '26-'27), but the district and board must move forward to balance the budget as passing a levy is not guaranteed and still does not cover the entire budget shortfall for '25-'26.
  • The supplemental levy is only for property tax collection during the 2026 calendar year and a new 3 year levy will be on a February 2026 ballot to replace it (is not additional) for collections starting in 2027.
  • Read more about the levy facts here and here.

Be an Advocate!

Every PTA should have an advocacy chair or committee-
  • What is Advocacy? Advocacy is anything you do for the welfare of your students, families, school community, or district. It’s seeing or hearing about an issue, and doing something about it, even if it’s just to inform your members, or bring it to the attention of school leaders or legislators. And since advocacy is in the very DNA of PTA, it should be part of every board member’s job.
  • If this website or the PTA council newsletter is not timely for your next PTA meeting, please email [email protected] for any updates or clarifications.
  • Advocacy chairs should also make an effort to attend WSPTA's Legislative Assembly and Focus Day or send a representative from their school if unable to attend.
  • Please follow our Shoreline PTA Council 6.12 Facebook page and share posts on your school's social media. 

Legislative Session 2025: Summary

  • This year focus was on legislation that addressed the "Big 3" (the largest of the statewide funding gaps).
  • This session Shoreline advocates sent 30,421 pre-drafted letters, which does not include the personal emails, phone calls, meetings, and "signing in PRO" that also occurred. Subscribership has grown to 1,272. 
  • TLDR: Had the best of the Big 3 bills (5263, 1338, 1579)  passed as they were originally introduced Shoreline and most districts would not be facing budget reductions. Preliminary estimations are that SSD will gain $1.1M from incremental increases to Special Education and MSOC. Transportation was not addressed at all. For comparison, if the Big 3 funding gaps had been met, SSD would have gained over $10M in revenue. 
  • Special Education
    • Dead: HB 1310 & SB 5307 (companion bills)-did not survive cutoff
    • Dead: HB 1357-at the last minute this bill replaced HB 1310 in the House Committee of Appropriations but did not survive cut off
    • SB 5263-(once signed by the Governor) will increase special education funding by $309.6M for the upcoming 2025-2027 biennium. $1.1B was needed to fully address student needs.
  • Transportation
  • MSOC-materials supplies and operating costs (IE insurance, utilities)
    • Dead: HB 1338-  reduced from fully funding MSOC to a $5.55/student increase in House Committee Appropriations and did not survive cutoff
    • SB 5192- (once signed by the Governor) will increase per pupil spending for materials, supplies and operating costs (utilities and insurance) by $35.27 per K-12 student and an additional $4.69 per 9-12th grade student or $78.9M for the biennium ($1B or an additional $558/student was needed to fill the gap). You may see $81.26 and $6.12, but those numbers include the mandatory maintenance level inflationary increase.​
Resources and Summaries from other sources: 

Background: Why Funding is the Focus

  • Enrollment is up but expenditures continue to outpace revenue. Shoreline School District's current projected unreserved ending fund balance for '24-'25 is $4.4M, which is 2.4%, and 4-5% is the standard goal for school district fiscal health and stability. For '25-'26 we are projected to be at a negative $2.1M unreserved fund balance and enter binding conditions by the end of '27 (due to a negative total ending fund balance) if timely and appropriate reductions are not made.
  • State and federal funding does not support the current full program of education in Shoreline. Washington State public schools are chronically underfunded, and Shoreline School District provides much more educational and support services than are paid for by the state.
    • For instance, most districts do not have deans/assistant principals at the elementary level or full-time librarians or nurses at all schools. Other underfunded positions include counselors, psychologist, paraeducators and family advocates.
  • Rising costs mean that our expenses are projected to exceed our revenues this year by $4 million.We must continue to take significant steps to avoid binding conditions so we can continue providing high-quality education to our students. 
    • Salary and benefit expenses exceed state funding by $27 million.
    • Materials, supplies, and operating costs (MSOC for short) which includes legally mandated insurance exceed state funding by $2.2 million.
    • Legally mandated special education services for students exceed state and federal funding by $8 million.
    • Substitute costs exceed state funding by $1.2 million
  • While districts should not have to, we rely on local levy collections to provide the essential services needed to meet the needs of our students, to support a fair living wage for our staff, and to provide additional staffing beyond what is state funded. In addition, the maximum amount we can ask for from our voters is capped by the state.
  • Declining enrollment equates to less funding from the state
  • Learn more about the Shoreline School District budget emergency, what has been done to address it so far, and what options we have to balance our budget.
  • Shoreline is not alone in this crisis. ​"Nationally, Washington ranks in the bottom third of states in terms of how much funding it devotes to schools compared with its economic capacity — even while it ranks in the top five states for gross state product per capita, according to the School Finance Indicators Database." Many other Washington state districts are facing deeper cuts and 6 are now in binding conditions. www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/schools-across-wa-are-struggling-to-balance-their-budgets/
How Did We Get Here?
School funding is complex, but a simplified answer is: 
  • ​Washington State's restructuring of K-12 education funding in 2018 due to the McCleary case, resulted in all school districts having less flexibility and less revenue than under the previous funding structure as a way to address the inequality of levies.
  • The COVID crisis then gave our schools: 
    • 1) new crises that drew down reserves
    • 2) new needs, paired with federal funding, which delayed budget cut decisions
    • 3) declines in student enrollment.
  • Most recently, inflation has driven up school operating costs, which has not been matched by increased state funding.
  • Shoreline is already at the max of our cap for our local levy funding, so we cannot currently raise more money locally to make up the shortfall between our operating costs and the state funding. Thus, we face budget cuts.
Learn more from SSD: School Closure Consideration and the Budget Advisory Team.

Take Action:

To be impactful as many constituents as possible need be consistently contacting and reaching out to their legislators. 
Be the squeaky wheel! Give them your personal stories about how the funding data mentioned above is affecting your family's experience in public schools!
  • Subscribe to WSPTA Action Alerts to get lobbyist Marie Sullivan's in depth weekly reports during session.
  • For weekly (during legislative session) actionable items involving funding specific to SSD, subscribe to the SAN. 
    • Already a subscriber? Spread the word! Ask other Shoreline and LFP public school supporters to subscribe. Subscribership has grown to over 1200 in the 3 years, but consistent participation is generally limited to about 50 members. There are nearly 10k students in our district. So there is definite room for growth!
    •  Talk to friends and neighbors. Use social media to increase participation. Student participation is strongly encouraged. Every member of your household can send letters and sign in PRO. 
  • ​Find your local legislators here.
  • Find House Education, Senate Education, House Fiscal and Senate Fiscal committee members at these links.
  • Find all state legislator contact information here. 
  • For tips on what to say or write to legislators email [email protected].

​1). For State Legislators: Thank them for their time and incremental investments, but remind them that the Big 3 funding gaps still exist for Shoreline and most districts: special education, MSOC (utilities/insurance), transportation as well as an understaffed prototypical school model.  Let them know what is happening at your school because these funding gaps remain unmet. The most recent example of this is the loss of non-contracted staff that includes the two drug and alcohol counselors at our middle and high schools. 
  • Reach out via email or phone
  • Ask for a coffee or zoom meeting
  • Invite them to a school event -cultural night, bingo night, science night etc (coordinate with your PTA and school administration)
  • Invite them to observe a class by coordinating with a teacher and your principal so they can see the effects of large class sizes and decreasing staff support during a typical school day 
  • Keep asking our local legislators to be champions for K-12 education. Ask them to draft and sponsor meaningful legislation as was done by Reps Berg and Nance and Senator Pederson. Had all 3 of their bills passed as introduced in 2025, K-12 education would have been just about fully funded statewide and SSD would not be making reductions.
​1st Legislative District (Lake Forest Park): 32nd Legislative District (Shoreline): ​
Consider contacting your Federal legislators regarding IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding. Under IDEA, the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average per pupil expenditure for special education. However, that pledge has never been fully met, and current funding is at risk with the threat of the dissolution of the Department of Education.
Ask the federal government to defend the Department of Education and fully fund the IDEA commitment which would fill many districts’ special education funding gaps.
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Washington State PTA Federal Resources and Federal Legislative Committee
National PTA Federal Action Alerts
​
A collective voice does make a difference!
Thank you for reading and for your collaborative advocacy!

Further Questions?  Want to do More? Contact us!

If you have any questions or want to be more involved, please reach out to your own school's PTA Advocacy Chair or the Shoreline PTA Council's Advocacy Chair.

Shoreline PTA Council's Advocacy email: [email protected]
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