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October 2, 2025
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I’m reminded by the sight of school buses around Ritzville and fall sports teams in action that the new school year is a few weeks old now.
As the father of an elementary school teacher, I care about K-12 education and having good schools throughout the 9th Legislative and the entire state. That’s why I take my job as the lead Senate Republican on the state capital budget committee so seriously. I know that by working on the capital budget, I can help local school districts with school construction needs.
While I appreciate the important role that public schools play in our communities, I also believe that the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state agency tasked with overseeing public schools in Washington, has failed to show leadership in responding to students suffering “learning loss” in the aftermath of COVID-19-era school shutdowns.
As most parents in recent years painfully know, many students experienced some form of learning loss during the pandemic. Many schools were shut down for as many as 18 months, instead relying solely on online instruction, which wasn’t nearly as effective for learning for most students. It was a difficult and unfair situation for students and parents.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, who briefly was a Tumwater School Board member and later served in the Legislature before being elected to his current post, had a chance during the COVID years to take steps to reverse learning loss for students.
As many of you know, there was a ton of federal COVID relief money that came to our state a few years ago. Reykdal could have led the call to use a substantial amount of those federal dollars to address the learning loss through more tutoring, summer school or performance incentives. Reykdal could have asked the Legislature to increase funding for the state’s Learning Assistance Program.
 Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal during his swearing-in ceremony this year.
But Reykdal did not take advantage of those opportunities. In fact, following the pandemic, he denied that learning loss even happened.
Since then, our students have paid the price through lower test scores.
A Washington State Standard story published in mid-September pointed out that test scores for Washington students are below where they were before the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. The opening two paragraphs of this piece say a lot that should concern all of us:
Standardized test scores for Washington public school students improved slightly this year, according to data the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction released Wednesday.
But the scores remain well below pre-pandemic levels, and the test results show nearly a third of students are not meeting grade-level standards in math, while the same is true for about a quarter of students when it comes to English.
The Seattle Times early this week published an editorial that takes Reykdal to task for not showing leadership to effectively combat learning loss among Washington K-12 students. I agree with The Times editorial. The state’s superintendent of public instruction has failed in providing the necessary leadership to help our students succeed during a difficult period that really required strong leadership.
New tax hike hurts nonprofits
Early this year, the Democrat-run Legislature passed several tax increases that collectively make up the largest tax package in state history. Most of these tax increases already have taken effect, but another one just went live on Wednesday this week.
It’s Senate Bill 5814, which imposes a sales tax on services. Check out this Washington State Standard story about this new tax and how much it will cost taxpayers. (Spoiler alert: about $3.6 billion over the next two years.)
This story by Seattle’s KING-TV pointed out that a new sales tax will impact many nonprofits throughout our state. From the KING story:
A sweeping new sales tax takes effect Wednesday in Washington, impacting more than 90,000 businesses and nonprofits across the state. Among those affected are nonprofit organizations working to help vulnerable communities.
The expanded tax, described as the biggest tax increase in Washington history, treats services as taxable goods for the first time. Starting Wednesday, nonprofits will pay taxes of up to 10% on services ranging from advertising to auctioneers — services that were previously tax-free.
The money raised by nonprofits should be used to focus on problems that these nonprofits try to address in their communities. But now, nonprofits will be forced to give 10% of their revenue for services to Olympia. That is both ridiculous and unfair. It’s another example of government greed and how legislative Democrats have run amok when it comes to taxes.
No E-Commentary next week
There will be no E-Commentary next week. It will resume the following week.
Let me know if you need help or have an idea
If you wish to discuss an issue or concern with me, or if you need help with a problem involving state government, please reach out to me by email at mark.schoesler@leg.wa.gov or give my legislative office a call at 360-786-7620. I'd like to hear from you!
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I welcome your comments about anything in this newsletter and questions about what I’m doing on your behalf in the state Senate. Please call, email or write using the contact information at the end of this report.
Click here to visit my legislative webpage!
Legislative Email: Mark.Schoesler@leg.wa.gov
Legislative Phone: (360) 786-7620
Toll-Free: 1 (800) 562-6000
Olympia Address:
417 Legislative Building
P.O. Box 40409
Olympia WA 98504-0409
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