OLYMPIA… In 2022, bipartisan efforts led to a historic investment for state schools to upgrade facilities and better protect Washington’s nearly 1 million students from devasting earthquakes. The Capital Budget that year allocated $140 million to start addressing the seismic upgrades, but new information reveals that hardly any funds have reached school districts to perform the work.
State Senator Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, has been part of the team leading Senate Republican efforts on the state’s investment budget. She is calling for swift action from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction that oversees the distribution of those funds.
“We put a great deal of effort and investment into upgrading our schools to keep children safe,” said Warnick, who also serves as the Chair of the Senate Republican Caucus. “It is incredible that those funds are not making their way to our schools, which desperately need retrofits.”
Based on accounting reported to the Legislature, OSPI has only spent just over $1 million to date, while projects around Washington sit idle waiting for funding.
“The Legislature received pretty stark information on just how vulnerable many of our schools are, so we came together to tackle the problem with robust funding and policy,” Warnick explained. “The program is a good one, but it’s unacceptable to have projects go unfunded while the money is sitting in an account nearly three years on. The Legislature was clear that this cannot wait – our kids are depending on it.”
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