2026 Legislative Candidate Questionnaire
Jesse Salomon
Candidate for
State Senator
32nd 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?
Jesse Salomon: Maintaining the primacy of K-12 in our budget negotiations. As the parent of a child in public school, I know our kids deserve to be prioritized. 2. One issue that PTA’s have brought to me is the unpredictability of the cost of utilities and insurance, so I introduced a bill to have the state take on those liabilities, since the state has a much bigger buffer in our budget. It is very hard for a local school to know if they can hire a new teacher or paraeducator when they can’t predict if insurance and utility costs will rise dramatically during the school year. My bill to have the state take on the cost of utilities and insurance for school districts would provide immediate relief and could pass quickly. 2. Working on statewide cell phone and social media policies. Our teachers should not be placed in the position where they have to police students' cell phone use in class. Tech companies should not be allowed to hack our students' attention with social media and relationships with AI chatbots, especially while in school.
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?
Jesse Salomon: I was a sponsor of the millionaires’ tax, and it will help, but not right away. A tax takes time to collect before it’s available to spend, so for the 2027 session the real work is prioritizing. K-12 has to come first in the 2027-29 budget. It is our paramount duty.
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?
Jesse Salomon: I recently met with the Washington Education Association to discuss reviving a push that I was a part of last session to get 2/3rds of the legislature to amend the constitutional provision that requires 60 percent of the electorate to approve school construction bonds. Many school districts approve these bonds above 50 percent but below 60 percent and we should bring the threshold down to a simple majority. We will need Republican votes to achieve 2/3rds needed for a constitutional amendment and because of my reputation of being able to work across the aisle, I was asked to be a part of the negotiations last session. I hope to carry that forward in my next term/session. I will also seek to pass the bill I introduced last session, which would have the state take on liability for utilities and insurance. When the state doesn’t cover those costs, districts have to use local levy dollars to make up the difference. Taking them on would reduce that reliance.
4.
Special education funding
Seattle Council PTSA: No, I don’t believe the current formula adequately covers special education costs. Two years ago I successfully argued for the Senate Democratic Caucus to prioritize increasing the special education multiplier (the amount of funds per special ed student above the set per student rate) and removing the artificial cap on the percentage of students who could quality for special education. We delivered. Now any student who meets the diagnosis and criteria for needing special education will qualify, rather than being subject to an artificial 15 percent cap. But it isn’t enough, and I believe we need to raise the multiplier further, specifically to allow for more paraeducators.
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?
Jesse Salomon: As stated previously, I will seek to pass the bill that I introduced last session that would have the state take on fiscal liability for utilities and insurance and not require the districts to pay for those.
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?
Jesse Salomon: School districts should have the support they need to transport students reliably, safely and equitably. I was proud to have voted for SB 5009 in 2025. This new law includes non-bus vehicles in the allocation determination, develops rules for drivers transporting students in vehicles other than buses, and broadens eligible vehicle categories. I also voted for SB 5174 in 2023. This bill would have directed OSPI to gather additional data for developing a new funding formula, create a transportation safety net program for districts with excess costs from special populations, and require OSPI to analyze costs and allocations. While this legislation did not pass into law, that year’s supplemental budget included $26 million to establish a transportation safety net. I support expanding this program to improve the STARS formula and better reflect the actual costs districts face.
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?
Jesse Salomon: I’m interested in making a direct member budget request to help schools hire and keep counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other behavioral health professionals. This is personal for me: a school drug and alcohol counselor saved my life when I was a teenager. I am so grateful for her kind approach to intervention. It deeply concerns me to know that some of these positions have been cut and other suffering students may go unhelped.
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.
Jesse Salomon: I went to Garfield High School, where we lost students to gun violence, and a shooting happened in the school shortly after I graduated. I know what’s at stake. A safe school means students who feel supported and have trusted adults, not just a secure building. I support early conflict resolution and hands-on approaches, especially peer-to-peer de-escalation. Often kids feel they can’t back down because they’ll be seen as weak, and peers can help change that. That work depends on having enough staff and support in schools to respond to student needs.
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?
Jesse Salomon: Based on numerous studies, we know that early learning is the best way to prepare children for success and close learning gaps before they start. It is especially important to correct institutional inequities that can disadvantage students of color/BIPOC communities. I have been endorsed by the Children’s Campaign Fund because I have always made these investments a priority. When we had to cut the budget last year, the budget writer spoke with every member about their priorities. While that may not sound like much, these are the critical informal side conversations that determine where the money is spent or cut in the budget process. I told her that my main priority was sparing K-12 and pre-K programs, and I will continue to defend and work to increase funding in the 2027-2029 budget.
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?
Jesse Salomon: I’ve raised this question with the policy lead for the Democratic caucus on K-12 education as well as my entire Democratic caucus: should the prototypical model be changed? The answer I got was that we’ve never fully funded it, so we don’t really know. Should we stick with the prototypical model, I would like to improve the model by increasing per-student allocations for multilingual learners and students from low-income households. California provides a multiplier for low-income students, meaning that they get 1.2 times the average pre-student funds. We should explore this.
11.
Millionaires' Tax Revenue
Seattle Council PTSA: Do you support Washington's Millionaires' Tax? Why or why not? If you support it, how do you believe the revenue should be allocated, particularly for K–12 public education, and what specific 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?
Jesse Salomon: Yes. I was a sponsor of the millionaires’ tax. Because of an overreliance on sales tax and other regressive revenue, people with less wealth pay a greater share of their earnings in taxes than the wealthy. In light of that and the Trump tax cut for the ultrawealthy (HR 1/BBB bill) it made sense to backfill the loss of federal revenue with this tax. As a parent with a child in public school, I believe K-12 should also be prioritized for the revenue generated by this tax and other progressive taxes I have supported like capital gains.
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?
Jesse Salomon: I have deep concerns that immigrant families have had to disengage from civic life due to ICE activity. That is one of the reasons I supported requiring search warrants before ICE can enter schools, health care facilities and other places that should be safe. Based on that I think we need to identify trusted community messengers who can help facilitate greater communication about their needs. The city of Shoreline has been doing this for a very long time, even though those efforts may not be obvious from the outside (by design in order to engender feelings of safety). I believe that good policy making comes with listening. The wider range of voices we hear from the better policy we make. Therefore I think it's important to increase accessibility for those who don’t have flexible schedules. That includes remote hearings, evening meetings, and interpreters.
