How Washington funds K-12 schools
Three streams of money
Every district's general fund is built from three main sources. The shares below are statewide; an individual district can look very different depending on its property wealth and its students.
77% of all revenue
15% of all revenue
6% of all revenue
2% of all revenue
The state share pays for what the constitution calls basic education. Article IX, section 1 of the Washington Constitution makes amply funding education the state's “paramount duty” - the provision at the centre of the McCleary litigation that drove the 2017 and 2018 funding changes.
What the state allocation pays for
The state's $16.2B allocation is not a single grant. It is a stack of formula components, each with its own driver - enrollment, staff counts, student need, or route miles.
| Component | Statewide | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries | $6,011,737,370 | 37% |
| Benefits | $2,267,588,787 | 14% |
| Materials, supplies & operating costs (MSOC) | $1,444,825,231 | 9% |
| Other basic education | $1,510,165,609 | 9% |
| Special education | $2,553,201,538 | 16% |
| Student transportation | $782,964,120 | 5% |
| Learning assistance (LAP) | $539,582,258 | 3% |
| Multilingual / bilingual education | $293,646,316 | 2% |
| Local Effort Assistance | $201,782,041 | 1% |
| Highly capable | $35,584,984 | 0% |
| Food service | $114,948,724 | 1% |
| Other state programs | $429,620,760 | 3% |
| Total state allocation | $16,185,647,753 | 100% |
Salaries and benefits together are the great majority of it, which is why the model that generates staff counts - the prototypical school model - determines so much of a district's budget.
Where districts cover the difference
For three programs the state publishes both an allocation and what districts actually spent, which makes a direct comparison possible. In all three, statewide spending runs above the statewide allocation, and the difference is covered from local levy, federal or other money.
- Special education - funded as a multiplier on top of basic education.
- Materials, supplies and operating costs - a flat per-student amount covering everything that is not staff pay.
- Student transportation - funded by its own formula, separate from basic education.
Each district's own figures are on its page. The largest districts by enrollment:
How the revenue is classified
District financial reports (the F-196) group revenue into nine code ranges. These are the categories behind every revenue figure on this site.
| Code | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1000 | Local taxes - voter-approved enrichment levies |
| 2000 | Local support non-tax - fees, rentals, interest |
| 3000 | State, general purpose - the apportionment formula and Local Effort Assistance |
| 4000 | State, special purpose - special education, transportation, learning assistance |
| 5000 | Federal, general purpose - forest fees, impact aid |
| 6000 | Federal, special purpose - Title I, IDEA, child nutrition |
| 7000 | Revenue from other school districts |
| 8000 | Revenue from other entities - cities, counties, tribes |
| 9000 | Other financing sources |
Full details, including every source file and the exact processing rules, are on Sources & Methodology.