‘We want to keep schools safe:’ Washington superintendent discusses ICE, budget deficit

Washington schools have been working to find ways to stave off a damaging budget crisis amid worries the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could invade campuses.

Chris Reykdal, Washington’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, joined “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio Monday to provide insight on the state’s plan to fund education and recommendations regarding ICE.

Reykdal said inflation ate up $1,000 per student over the last four years.

“Our school districts have $1,000 less in buying power today, to pay teachers, to buy supplies, equipment, to run buses, all of that $1,000 less per student than they had five years ago. That’s the bottom line,” he explained. “Our state has prospered, which has been great, but a huge share of our economic growth has gone into lots of other programs and we don’t think our legislators maintain basic ed at the level they were expected to after the court told them to seven years ago, so it’s pretty simple.”

Reykdal added it’s important to note Washington is a low-tax state on average, meaning “we collect less revenue in this state as a share of our economy than the average state,” he explained.

However, Reykdal said the problem with taxing is that it takes a lot from low and middle-income families.

Related news: Seattle Public Schools revises plan for closures

Reykdal on idea of cutting other programs

So why not take funding from other programs and give it to education?

“If you harm housing supports, mental health supports for kids, foster youth, early learning, higher ed, you’re just harming children in a different way,” Reykdal said.

He believes the legislature should look at making “reasonable cuts” and work on balancing the tax code, which would net education another billion to $2 billion a year.

Reykdal added the legislature “took a lot of authority away from local voters seven or eight years ago.”

“Our voters were happily supporting their schools with levies. They still passed them,” he said. “By the way, 94% of levies last year passed. So that isn’t the question. It’s that the legislature put a really low cap on what school districts can generate for revenue to help themselves and I do think the legislature will have to restore that.”

Reykdal also noted that Washington is “a $22 billion donor to the rest of the country.”

“Democrats and Republicans in DC who represent us, they have got to give Washington State a bigger share of our federal pie back and then maybe we can talk about some tax cuts at the state level,” he said.

Why more money for fewer students in schools?

A listener texted “Gee and Ursula” regarding a drop in the number of students in public schools and asked: Why do we need more money for less population? Why can’t the schools live within a budget like we have to do?

“They do and our enrollment declines,” Reykdal responded. “They bottomed out four years ago. We’ve been growing since then and my numbers for requests from the legislature include the fact that we have fewer students. Otherwise, I would have been asking for three and a half or $4 billion if I was trying to fund everything we used to have. I’m acknowledging that we have about 30,000 fewer students.”

More on MyNW: Marysville School District closes 2 schools to stave off financial crisis

Washington’s plan if ICE shows up at schools

Switching topics, co-host of “Gee and Ursula” Gee Scott asked how the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is handling measures surrounding ICE.

“We’re making sure districts understand their legal responsibilities and it’s balanced,” Reykdal said. “I want to be really clear about this. For 10 years or more, there’s been an agreement at the federal level that ICE agents wouldn’t use schools, churches or hospitals to go after children, and the Trump administration has said that’s no longer going to be a protection. So what we’ve said to school districts is, legally, that is true, and you need to follow the law, but there are processes that you still have to follow.”

According to Reykdal, those procedures include if ICE shows up on a school campus, agents must have a warrant or something authenticated from a court that gives them permission to be on the premises and talk to a student.

Also, school districts will have to notify a parent or guardian if ICE speaks to their child, along with the principal, superintendent and local legal counsel if the district has it.

“So it’s not as if we open up our doors to everybody,” Reykdal explained. “We want to keep schools safe and we can’t have anyone, for example, posing as ICE agents, who are just let in because they say.”

More ICE coverage: ICE arrests repeat offenders across Washington linked to sexual assaults

He added that while it’s legal for ICE agents to come to schools, districts need to protect the processes and that districts are already feeling the effects.

“So far, we’ve not heard of actual apprehensions on school campuses, but it’s already impacting some school districts’ enrollments because families are so worried about separation,” he shared.

Last week, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed an executive order to support children if their parents are arrested by ICE.

According to the governor’s office, the Family Separation and Rapid Response Team will operate under Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families to develop procedures in reaction to the Trump Administration’s policy to round up and send millions of illegal immigrants back to their country of origin.

Contributing: Luke Duecy, KIRO Newsradio

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.

Listen to “The Gee and Ursula Show“ weekday mornings from 9 a.m.- noon on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.