Key Findings

1. SB 5237 would create a new complaint process through which a local school district could lose 20 percent of its funding.

2. In current law, school boards choose appropriate textbooks and classroom materials.

3. SB 5237 would end local control over textbooks and instructional materials.

4. The families of 46,000 students have withdrawn their children from the public schools.

5. Many families are saying they left public education to protect their children from hurtful ideas and radical ideologies.

6. SB 5237 would make public education less democratic because locally-elected school boards would no longer be able to protect young students from the harmful impacts of the Critical Race Theory and radical gender ideology.  

7. SB 5237 would move public education backwards by reducing local control, by raising further concerns about CRT, and by creating another reason for families to leave the system.

Introduction

SB 5237 would create a procedure for cutting local school budgets by 20% through a new complaint process administered by the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Complaints could be filed by anyone in the state against any school district or any school board member for “noncompliance with state law” related to curriculum, textbooks and classroom instructional materials. If the complaint is confirmed, the state Superintendent would have the power to choose textbooks and classroom material for the local district and, at his discretion, withhold 20% of school district funding.

Click here to read the Legislative Memo in full.