2026 Legislative Candidate Questionnaire
Darya Farivar
Candidate for
State Representative Position 2
46th Legislative District
1.
Legislative priorities
Seattle Council PTSA: What will be your top three legislative priorities regarding K-12 public education during the 2027 legislative session and why?
Darya Farivar: My roots in politics and advocacy are informed by the disability community. I have worked in disability rights for many years, majoring in communicative disorders and later working at Disability Rights Washington. With that, I have been witness to the harm our school system perpetuates against disabled students, especially disabled students of color. While I am beyond grateful for the tireless advocacy from people like my seatmate Rep. Pollet, who has pushed for better, we still have a long way to go. Creating a public school system that adequately supports all its students, and has sufficient resources/funding to do so is my first educational priority. Additionally, in my previous day job, I spent time in our jails, prisons, and state institutions learning how individuals ended up there. What I learned was that many of these adults were once students who did not receive the support they needed. Without the proper support, they stopped attending school, acted out, and eventually got swept up in the cyclical and punitive system of incarceration. Many of these adults also identified as disabled and were especially neglected by our school systems. In many ways, receiving a disability diagnosis is a privilege. The same behavior that leads one student to get a diagnosis and the necessary support can label Black and Brown students as dangerous, disruptive, and alienate them from our school systems. Our public school systems offer a unique ability for intervention at the very start. We have a responsibility to get to the root cause of these harmful systemic issues, and that starts with how our school systems provide support and resources to students who need it most, another priority for me as a legislator. Finally, my third priority is creating a more equitable funding system. Our current system, dependent on regressive taxation systems, funnels funding towards the most well-resourced schools and leaves the others without sufficient support. This fundamentally influences my other priorities as well, as the regressive taxation system exacerbates other crises in a cyclical nature.
2.
State budget priorities and revenue
Seattle Council PTSA: As the Legislature develops the 2027–29 state budget, how would you prioritize K–12 public education alongside other state needs? What changes, if any, to state revenue policies would you support to ensure adequate and sustainable education funding?
Darya Farivar: Our students are the future of our state, and our funding must reflect that. It is imperative that we find reliable and progressive streams of revenue, both for our state systems generally and for our students more directly. We have watched the regressive funding methods of sales taxes, property taxes, and levies place the most burden on the members of our community who are struggling the most. Ensuring our education systems have enough funding starts with creating a state revenue system that provides permanent, progressive funding streams for the whole state. I was incredibly proud to see the Millionaire’s Tax pass this past session, a hard-fought victory. But, even if it is held up in court, this is not enough. We need to pass a wealth tax, and I would be proud to support those efforts. Once those streams of funding are established, I would like to make educational funding a top priority of our state. The education of our students is our paramount duty as a state legislature, and our funding must reflect that.
3.
Levy reliance and regional funding inequity
Seattle Council PTSA: What changes, if any, would you support to reduce school districts' reliance on local levies and address funding inequities between districts?
Darya Farivar: We have been trying to plug the hole left in our school funding system by allowing localities to pass levies every few years. The amount of revenue brought in by levies is completely dependent on the local property value. This means more affluent neighborhoods bring in more money for their schools while lower income communities are not able to plug that hole. Voters are not satisfied with filling the hole by using this inequitable system and also understand that it's all we have right now. We need to take a close look at our school funding systems and develop better options for plugging this hole. We must be clear that levies are not a permanent solution, and hold ourselves accountable to that. As I previously stated, we need to create long-term, progressive solutions to revenue generation in our state, not just for education but for all of our state systems. As I look for solutions, I plan to direct the legislature to use educational funding as a way to correct inequity–not to heighten it.
4.
Special education funding
Seattle Council PTSA: Do you believe the current state funding formula, including the special education multiplier, adequately covers special education costs? What specific changes, if any, would you support?
Darya Farivar: As previously mentioned, I got my start working in Disability Rights. My first reasons for running for office were rooted in this work. My years of advocacy have taught me a very basic lesson: our public education system has failed the disabled community. While I am beyond grateful for the tireless advocacy of my seatmate Rep. Pollet in removing the arbitrary cap on special education enrollment, more work is needed. The special education multiplier treats every student with disabilities the same. While the rate of additional state funding may be enough for a student who requires minimal help, it is nowhere near sufficient to support students who need more intensive support. I want to be clear that the support we could provide, like a full-time aide for students who need it, is life-changing. It also creates a better learning environment for all students, and helps prevent harmful cycles of incarcerations like I previously wrote. Meeting students’ needs at the beginning is a unique opportunity, and one that we must fully realize. Now that the cap is removed, we must take a closer look at the entire formula and modify it substantially to meet our current needs.
5.
Materials, supplies, and operating costs (MSOC)
Seattle Council PTSA: Do you believe the state's current MSOC funding formula adequately covers school districts' operating expenses, including utilities, insurance, and technology? What specific changes, if any, would you support?
Darya Farivar: Our current funding formula does not provide sufficient support for each student. That, once again, leads schools to rely on funding from levies. Under this system, wealthy schools that receive high revenue from their levies are able to fill gaps in funding, while schools in struggling neighborhoods cannot. This is another way in which our funding model exacerbates inequality in education. I would like to have conversations with impacted individuals, students and faculty from schools across our state, to discover what an adequate level of MSOC funding would be. My legislative motto is “Nothing About Us Without Us” wherein I strongly believe that the most impacted individuals should be leading policy conversations about the policy that affects them. In this case, nobody knows education funding better than the most impacted individuals, students and teachers. I would be happy to advocate for their advised level of funding, combined with advocacy for more equitable revenue streams, to ensure that all students have access to the resources they need, not just to survive, but to thrive.
6.
Transportation funding
Seattle Council PTSA: What is your assessment of the state's current STARS transportation funding formula? What specific changes, if any, would you support?
Darya Farivar: Once again, our current funding model for transportation fails the students who need help the most. If I sound like a broken record, that is by design. Our system has routinely failed our students who need support most. Our current transportation model neglects unhoused students, special education transportation, and foster care students. That is unacceptable. A flat rate of funding stands in direct opposition to equity by flattening the different needs of students. Time and time again this funding formula has proven itself ineffective. It is time that we adopt funding mechanisms for transportation, along with every other aspect of education funding, that provides students with the support they need, even and especially if they need more support than their peers. We need a system that sees and addresses the individual needs of each student.
7.
Student mental and behavioral health
Seattle Council PTSA: What specific funding or policy changes, if any, would you support to ensure schools have sufficient counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other mental and behavioral health professionals to meet students' needs?
Darya Farivar: The first step of this conversation is realizing that mental health support is a basic need and absolutely must be supported. Mental health support needs to be in the same conversation of health care, educational support, and basic needs like shelter and food. If a child is struggling with their mental health, we cannot expect them to learn. At the same time, we are also facing a serious deficit of mental health professionals. There are simply not enough mental health professionals to fill the serious gaps in our schooling system. To fight this deficit will require mutli-tiered tiered advocacy, that starts with valuing mental health support fully, paying mental health professionals competitive wages, and encouraging more people to enter these fields at the earliest stages.
8.
School safety
Seattle Council PTSA: What does a safe school environment mean to you, and what specific policies or investments would you prioritize to create it? Please address both physical safety and the conditions inside schools, including discipline, student support, and staff capacity to respond to student needs.
Darya Farivar: As one of the youngest members of the state legislature, and an alum of Seattle Public Schools myself, I know how scary attending school can be today. No student should fear for their safety when they enter the classroom, whether they are concerned about school shootings or unequal treatment at the hands of officials meant to protect their safety. Above all else, we need to have effective gun control to mitigate fears of shootings. I was proud to sponsor legislation that placed bans on bulk firearms purchases, required permit-to-purchase, and am ready to push for safe storage laws in this upcoming session. When it comes to disciplinary systems, we need to create systems that are effective at prevention rather than punitive and substanceless. A system that pushes students into the school-to-prison pipeline is ineffective both at supporting students and creating safer environments. Instead, we need to meet the needs of our students from early ages. Most “disruptive” behavior by students is a clear sign that a student is not receiving the support they need. If we can address these needs earlier, we prevent future unsafe behavior and create a more sustainable solution than punitive systems.
9.
Early learning
Seattle Council PTSA: What is your view of the state's responsibility to expand access to quality early learning, and what would you do in the 2027-29 budget to address unmet needs in communities like ours?
Darya Farivar: The lack of early learning support from our state presents a glaring need. Pre-K services have a well-documented positive impact on the future abilities of students. State provided early education also enables parents to work without worrying about unaffordable childcare. If we provide early education directly, we will see serious dividends in our investments, both in the form of better foundations for students and more security for young families. Once again, this offers an opportunity for intervention at the earliest stages-before the inequalities in our system have done serious damage. We can prevent the worst effects of inequality by providing these essential programs to set our students up for success and ensure they have the best learning foundation possible.
10.
Prototypical school funding model
Seattle Council PTSA: The state calculates school funding through the prototypical school funding model, including staffing allocations and student-to-staff ratios. What specific changes, if any, would you support?
Darya Farivar: The prototypical school funding model does not even pretend to be adequate. Students desperately need more than what is provided through these ratios to meet even their most basic needs. That leaves levies to fill the gap. Schools need more funding. Our state needs more funding to achieve its basic responsibilities. This session, I am prepared to fight for the type of long-term, progressive funding models that our residents deserve.
11.
Millionaires' Tax Revenue
Seattle Council PTSA: Do you support Washington's Millionaires' Tax? Why or why not? If you support it, how do youbelieve the revenue should be allocated, particularly for K–12 public education, and whatspecific changes, if any, would you propose? If you oppose it, what alternative revenue sourcesor funding changes would you propose to meet the state's K–12 education funding obligations?
Darya Farivar: Yes, I was incredibly proud to be a part of passing this landmark legislation. While it was a hard-fought step in the right direction, it is also not sufficient to provide funding for our entire state or replace our regressive tax systems. As stated, we need to find additional long-term funding models that are truly progressive and funnel money into our systems that need it most, chief among them our education system. So, while I find conversations about the allocation of the Millionaires’ Tax productive, especially as it pertains to education funding, I find that it misses the broader point. Instead of arguing about its allocation, we need to be looking for additional streams of revenue that can permanently fund our systems, from a wealth tax to making sure corporations in our state are paying their fair share.
12.
Family and student participation & accountability
Seattle Council PTSA: How would you ensure that students and families have meaningful opportunities to participate in education policy decisions at the state and district levels? What specific steps would you support to ensure that adopted policies are implemented effectively and that districts are held accountable for following them?
Darya Farivar: Although we have paths available for families and students to make their concerns heard at school board meetings and the inclusion of non-voting student members, this inclusion is often surface level and exclusive. It gives disproportionate voice to families that understand how to best use these systems to their advantage, while parents that are unable to take time off, understand the jargon used in meetings, or even speak the language used. That leaves immigrant and working families out of the picture entirely. At the state level I’m proud to have sponsored and passed the Nothing About Us Without Us Act which requires that people with direct lived experience - including students - have a voice in policy decision making. I fought hard to require three people with direct lived experience in each workgroup created to create policy recommendations and that they retain voting rights. As for students at the district level, the non-voting positions hold very little power and are application-based, creating immediate barriers to entry. No part of our state system, least of all our education system should be above democracy and democratic complaint. Students and families are the most impacted by education policy systems and must have a real voice in the decision making process. It is our responsibility to remove these barriers.
