Keith Scully

Candidate for
State Representative Position 1
32nd Legislative District

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? 

Keith Scully: No. Special education is a legal entitlement under federal and state law, and districts, including Shoreline, spend millions more than the state provides each year. I support Superintendent Reykdal's call for at least $1 billion in additional special education funding. I also support changing how the money flows. Funding should follow student need rather than a flat per-student percentage, and the enrollment cap on the multiplier should be removed. The state should also fund the support systems districts need regardless of size, such as speech pathology and other specialists, so that a small district is not left without services because it has too few eligible students to justify a position.

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? 

Keith Scully: No. MSOC has not kept pace with real costs, particularly insurance and utilities, which have risen sharply since the allocation was set. Districts are forced to use levy dollars or cut staff to pay for things the state requires them to buy. I would support an increase to bring MSOC in line with actual costs, followed by annual adjustments tied to actual cost drivers (insurance, utilities, technology) rather than a single general inflation index. I would also support regular, scheduled reviews of the formula so the Legislature does not have to wait for a crisis to update it.

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? 

Keith Scully: STARS is outdated and does not reflect the actual cost of fuel, vehicles, driver wages, or the routes districts are legally required to run. Districts end up covering the shortfall from their general funds, which pulls money away from classrooms. I would support reimbursing the actual cost of providing required transportation, with a transparent and predictable formula that accounts for geography, route density, and special education and homeless-student transportation, which the state requires but under-reimburses. Students need reliable transportation to be able to learn.

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?

Keith Scully: The state should fund these positions as part of basic education, not leave them to levy dollars and grants that disappear. Our staffing ratios are far below nationally recommended levels. I would support increasing prototypical school model allocations for counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers so that every school has meaningful access to them, along with support for recruiting and retaining those professionals. As a pro tem judge in King County Juvenile Court since 2009, I have seen how often unmet mental health, substance use and family needs end up as discipline or court cases. Putting adequate staff in schools earlier is both better for kids and cheaper for the public.

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.

Keith Scully: A safe school is one where every student and staff member is physically safe and also feels they belong and can get help when they need it. On physical safety, I would support funding for building security and emergency preparedness, firearm safe-storage laws, and keeping schools from becoming sites for immigration enforcement. Inside schools, safety depends on staffing: counselors, nurses and paraeducators who know students and can respond before a problem escalates. I favor restorative and supportive approaches over exclusionary discipline, because from the juvenile bench I see how suspensions and expulsions feed the school-to-prison pipeline. That requires the state to fund adequate staff and training so schools can do this well.

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?

Keith Scully: Education does not start in kindergarten. Early learning is fundamental to later success and is also a childcare issue for many families. I support treating early learning as part of the state's paramount duty. In the 2027-29 budget, I would prioritize expanding ECEAP slots so every eligible child is served, raising rates for providers so that programs can pay staff a living wage and stay open, and supporting Birth-to-3 services. Access is unequal now: families with means can afford quality programs, while others compete for a small number of openings.

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?

Keith Scully: The model has not been meaningfully updated to reflect what schools actually need. I would support: - Updating staffing ratios, especially after Grade 3, where the allocations fall well short of real class sizes. - Adding or increasing allocations for counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists and paraeducators. - Fully funding substitute days, benefits and the real cost of staff compensation. - Guaranteeing that each necessary part of a district's operating budget is funded each year, so districts are not forced to choose between paying for insurance and paying for paraeducators. I would also support regular statutory reviews of the model so it keeps up with changing needs.

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?

Keith Scully: Yes, I support it. Washington has the most regressive tax system in the country, and asking the highest earners to pay a fair share is a step toward fixing that. It should be the start of the tax reform conversation and not the end. We will not be fair to the families who pay the most as a share of income until we replace more of our reliance on sales and property taxes with progressive sources. On allocation, the revenue should go first to education, where the funding gaps are largest and the state's constitutional duty is clearest, and to tax relief for lower-income Washingtonians. Specifically, I would direct it to fully funding MSOC, special education and transportation at actual cost, and to adding mental health staff and early learning capacity, rather than letting it fill general budget holes elsewhere. I would also support dedicating the revenue so that it cannot be diverted, and publishing annual reports on how much of it reaches classrooms.

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?

Keith Scully: I would start by making participation easy: legislative hearings with remote testimony and evening access, plain-language summaries of education bills, and translation and interpretation so that families who do not speak English at home are included. I would also support student voices on advisory bodies. I will meet regularly with PTAs, school boards and student groups, as I have done as a Shoreline councilmember and Mayor. On accountability, adopted policies should come with clear implementation timelines, public reporting of results, and funding. Many policies fail because they are unfunded mandates. Districts should be held to the requirements, and the state should fund them. I would support transparent reporting by OSPI so families can see whether policies are being followed.