Rep. Skyler Rude: A new school year should mean new opportunities for Washington students
Across Washington, students have returned to classrooms filled with new notebooks and other supplies in anticipation of a new school year.
Parents, meanwhile, are carrying a heavy burden: the growing financial strain of preparing their children for success.
This year, families spent an average of around $860 on back-to-school shopping for each child. That is on top of higher grocery bills, rising gas prices, and housing costs that continue to climb. For many households, it’s a choice between different necessities — and too often, it’s children who feel the impact.
During the 2025 legislative session, House Republicans proposed a back-to-school sales tax holiday that would have saved families an average of $85.
For most parents, that’s not pocket change; it’s food on the table or gas in the tank. While this could have been a small way to provide some relief to families, the proposal was rejected.
The harder truth is that families are being asked to spend more while our education system delivers less.
Washington’s public schools are facing a learning crisis, with test scores in reading and math still lagging far behind. These numbers aren’t abstract — they represent children being left behind, classrooms where potential is slipping through the cracks, and futures that will be harder to reclaim the longer we wait to act.
That is why House Republicans put forward legislation focused on student academic success.
House Bill 1832 would have strengthened early literacy programs so every child could read proficiently by third grade — a milestone that often determines long-term success.
House Bill 1140 sought to give parents more options through Education Savings Accounts when their child’s needs weren’t being met.
We also worked to protect levy equalization to ensure students in property-poor districts aren’t harmed simply by their geography.
To direct more resources into classrooms, we proposed a measure to cap excessive administrative salaries, freeing funds to hire teachers and reduce class sizes.
To address one of the biggest emerging distractions from learning, we worked to restrict cell phone use during instructional time.
And with my own House Bill 1285, we tried to advance financial literacy education so every Washington student can graduate with the skills to manage their money, avoid debt, and prepare for independence after high school.
Together, these reforms carried a simple yet powerful goal: to put students first and direct resources toward learning — not toward layers of bureaucracy.
Yet most of these efforts were blocked.
Instead, we saw bills like House Bill 1296, which overturned voter-approved parental rights protections and reduced transparency requirements for parents.
Proposals to increase funding accountability by boosting classroom materials and supplies were also denied. Too often, priorities in Olympia are misaligned with the needs of families.
The reality is that Washington already spends nearly $19,000 per student each year — among the highest in the nation.
The problem isn’t a lack of money, but a lack of accountability and systems that increasingly inhibit the ability of teachers to focus on teaching.
Teachers still experience crowded classrooms and struggle for resources. Students are still falling farther behind. Administrators still see an increasing compliance and reporting burden that siphons off resources. Every dollar that doesn’t reach the classroom is a missed opportunity.
Education should never be treated as a partisan battleground. Every child deserves a fair chance to succeed, every teacher deserves the tools to facilitate that success, and every parent deserves to be respected and included.
As the ranking member of the House Education Committee, my commitment is to continue pressing for reforms that emphasize literacy, accountability, financial readiness, safe classrooms, and schools that partner with parents.
Because while the cost of supplies may rise each year, the cost of doing nothing is far greater — for our students, for our communities, and for the future of Washington.
Rep. Skyler Rude represents the 16th Legislative District and is the ranking Republican on the House Education Committee.
As printed in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
