At the Billion Dollar Bake Sale at the Capitol in Olympia on January 30, State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen came to speak and said the caucus had decided to make K-12 funding their priority for the session (as the constitution requires). Nobody from House Dem leadership came to speak.

"Voters were clear last November: they don’t want school funding cut so that extremely wealthy people can keep enjoying a tax break," said Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle).

Inside the Capitol, parents and educators and students met with legislators, including brand-new State Rep Brianna Thomas, and State Rep Gerry Pollet, to urge them to fund public schools. Unfortunately @governorferguson.bsky.social was not in his office or even in Olympia today (per his staff).

State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen told the crowd that Senate Democrats voted to make more funding for K-12 public education their main priority this session. Which is good...though that's also what the state constitution tells them. He also called for progressive revenue.

We had some great students speak as well, from Graham Hill Elementary and Orca K-8 in Seattle!

Here's State Superintendent of Public Instruction @chrisreykdal.bsky.social urging the crowd to demand not just a Billion Dollars, but $4 Billion -- the amount WA schools are being shortchanged every year

We had some great speakers at the rally. Here's @coaltownkdl.bsky.social talking about how she came to the Capitol ten years ago to advocate for fully funding public schools. How long will this take until legislators and the governor get it done?!

Some more photos from an amazing day of advocacy:

We're happy that Inslee is embracing the wealth tax. But that should go to the $4B per year that our public schools need to properly educate our kids. Other sources of revenue can be used to close the budget deficit, including an expanded capital gains tax.