(The Center Square) – Despite a recent report showing Washington’s charter school graduates are outperforming their peers in traditional public schools, state lawmakers cut about $7.5 million in enrichment funding for charter schools during the 2026 legislative session.
The cuts impact roughly 4,800 students across Washington’s 15 public charter schools, amounting to about $1,500 per student, forcing potential cuts to programs and staff.
“We have to stop doing this to the most vulnerable populations,” said Washington Charter Schools Commission Director Marcus Harden in an interview last week with The Center Square.
Harden noted Washington’s charter schools serve at risk student populations, including teen parents, minority groups and students with disabilities.
“And so, to continually take away from them, that’s problem number one,” Harden said. “And the we continue to ask them to do more with less…..with students who, by your definition, need more, that’s just not right.”
The cut specifically targets “enrichment” funding that schools use for essential basic education, including career-exploration programs, staff and student counseling. Given charter schools already operate with less per-pupil funding than traditional public schools, because they do not have access to local levy dollars, enrichment funding cuts hit deeper.
“I think the title of enrichment funding left some legislators confused thinking that’s money going for field trips or balloons or whatever. The reality is that funding was set aside to get charter schools closer to equalized funding,” Harden said. “What it actually takes away from is in one of our schools a reading program that builds up lower-level readers and for our multilingual learner programs. It’s also for a lot of our schools to support day-to-day operations, so those are major cuts for a lot of our schools.”
As reported last month by The Center Square, a new report from charter school advocates in Washington indicates charter graduates are making more money and owning more homes than their counterparts who graduated from traditional public schools. The report titled “Turning the Tassel in Washington State” was designed to look at what life looks like for young adults after high school graduation.
Among key findings in the report-
Employed Washington charter school alumni earn an average of $120,109** per year compared to $76,178 for district alumni.47% of Washington charter school alumni report owning their home compared to 18% of district alumni.
Washington opened the first charter schools in 2014. For years prior, opponents, including the Washington Education Association, mounted successful efforts against the alternative to public schools. It took a citizen initiative and surviving several court challenges for supporters to get the green light to open the first charter schools in the state.
Harden said charter school directors will have some tough decisions to make in the coming months as they grapple with funding cuts that could mean layoffs for already lean staff payrolls and/or cuts to student programs.
“I’m a fan of whatever parents want and feel what’s best for their students,” he said. “I’m a proud graduate of Rainer Beach High School, right? I even still call the basketball games there and I want those kids to win as much as I want the kids down the street at RVLA to win.”
He was referring to Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA), a public charter school in Southeast Seattle.
“And the one thing I always try to say is like, the kids don’t care. Right? So, you know, the kids that go to Rainer Beach, and the kids that go to RVLA, they’re going to be growing up together, and they’re going to be in each other’s weddings, in each other’s college lives,” Harden said. “The fact that the kid at Rainer Beach is on paper, worth more then maybe their brother or sister, who goes to that [charter] school down the street, who also has teachers that are asked to do more to get paid less…..I think it’s a crime.”
As of March 2026, an estimated 1,200 families are on waiting lists for public charter schools in Washington state, with many schools operating lotteries to manage enrollment, particularly for popular, high-need urban area campuses.
WEA, the teachers union, did not respond to a request for comment.
