Lower enrollment, budgetary woes haunt Seattle schools at start of school year

Seattle Public Schools welcomed 49,000 students this week – down from more than 52,000 students in 2020 – while planning further discussions over dwindling enrollment and projected budget deficits.

“Our biggest concern that we see in our enrollment forecast are smaller kindergarten classes,” said the district’s interim superintendent, Fred Podesta, in a Sept. 2 news conference covered by KOMO News.

Although the district wants a minimum of 350 students in each elementary school, several currently operate with fewer than 200 students, Podesta noted.

“As we look to the future – how we get to an ultimate, stable financial plan – we might bring back on the table, do we need to think about some of these very small schools?”

However, proposed school closures have received area pushback even with falling enrollment numbers.

“We heard loud and clear from the community that the plan we put forth that they weren’t really ready to adopt,” Podesta said, adding the district will not close any schools for the 2025-26 academic year.

The district, which has 63 elementary schools and 11 K-8 schools, balanced its budget for this school year but is facing an $80 million shortfall for future years, according to Podesta.

City’s expiring education levy raises concerns

Taxpayers already bear a hefty burden for the city’s public-education system – paying over $19,000 per student in 2019, according to the Washington Policy Center. 

“Even with top-dollar funding, 34% of public school third graders fail in reading; and 35% of seventh graders fail in math,” writes Liv Finne, director emeritus at the think tank’s Center for Education. “In contrast, most of Seattle’s private schools receive less money and provide a better education to children.”

However, the city is considering a renewal of its expiring education Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) Levy, which would raise $1.3 billion in taxes for early learning, childcare and post-secondary preparation programs in the next six years.

“Past FEPP levies have drawn criticism from fiscal watchdogs, including the Washington Policy Center, which stated that the tax did not significantly raise test scores, reduce the achievement gap, increase graduation rates, or make every student college-ready in 2018 when the current levy was on the ballot,” the Center Square reported in June.

The district had also planned to close four elementary schools as a cost-cutting measure but backtracked in a November 2024 school board meeting, according to KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio.

“After much deliberation, reflection, and engagement with our community, it is clear there is no longer a pathway for this approach for the 2025-26 school year,” wrote then-Superintendent Brent Jones at the time. “This decision was not made lightly and reflects the Board and my shared priority: the needs and well-being of our students, families, and community.”