Running Start funding protected in final supplemental state budget
The legislature has passed the 2018 supplemental budget bill, SB 6032. The good news is that funding for the popular Running Start program has been protected. (See page 312, Section 502 Subsection (18).) Senator Wellman’s (D-Mercer Island) proposed $30 million cut was defeated. But it was a close call for the 26,000 students and their families who benefit from this successful program.
Executives at the powerful WEA teachers union wanted to cut Running Start because they see it as competing with their own state-funded programs.
Running Start funding was saved...this time. But we can expect further attempts to cut Running Start in the future.
The only real solution is to give Running Start money directly to eligible students, in the form of a voucher or a personal education account. Students could then use the funding to attend the public community or technical college of their choice, just as they do now. The difference is their funding would no longer be subject to the whims of special interest politics.