2026 Legislative Candidate Questionnaire
Will Dreher
Candidate for
State Representative Position 1
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?
Will Dreher: First, we should have a top-10 public school system, and as a former elementary school teacher, I’ll prioritize teacher-supporting, evidence-based investments to spur our schools’ performance. We recently ranked 31st (statewide) on a blended K-12 education metric, and several of our test scores have slipped from top-15 to average in the last 15 years. By contrast, in 2013, Mississippi—then 49th in reading scores—implemented literacy reforms that produced results: Mississippi’s scores are now top-10, and first when adjusted. Our legislature finally passed a limited literacy reform bill in 2026, but it was late, years after many states had done the same. And it was far more modest than many states’ legislation: it permits school districts to delay implementation of science-based reading curricula for years, does not fund literacy coaches, teacher professional development, or summer reading camps, and does not require individualized student reading plans. I would prioritize implementing and funding these interventions immediately, given their track record of success. Second, as a consumer attorney who sues technology companies, I will also address the failure of our State to regulate technology’s impact on kids. We’re one of the last states without a statewide school smartphone ban, and unlike many other states, we do not regulate addictive social media applications or AI’s use in schools. Students often spend unnecessary time on screens, inhibiting both learning and their mental health, while high school teachers have been left to decide how to grapple with students’ use of generative AI. I’ll bring focused leadership on these issues so that we catch up to, and then lead, our peer states in regulating kids’ exposure to new technologies and their use in the classroom. Third, I would seek to increase pre-K and K-12 education funding, including if necessary at the expense of other budget items, in order to fund previously unfunded mandates, the interventions noted above, and to come closer to fulfilling our paramount constitutional duty.
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?
Will Dreher: As noted above, pre-K and K-12 education (and ancillary funding) is my top funding priority, and will remain so in future years. As a result, I would choose to support it over alternative state needs if necessary. In general, investments in pre-K and education are among the best investments a State can make - and if we continue to underinvest in them, we pay significantly more down the road in various other ways. We have passed dozens of unfunded mandates in recent years that leave local school districts scrambling to figure out how to pay for them; we should end that practice. And we should prioritize restoring the inexcusable cuts to Transition to Kindergarten funding. I would support the use of new progressive revenue sources to fund education - either through changes to the state property tax structure/limits or through additional allocations to education and pre-K funding through the general fund. There are multiple pending proposed bills seeking additional progressive revenue (such as lifting the Advanced Computing Surcharge cap) that could be paired with directing additional funds to K-12 education. More broadly, we need to fix our regressive, antiquated tax structure, which relies heavily on regressive property and sales taxes and a uniquely complex and ill-designed Business & Occupation Tax rather than a corporate profits tax, and does not tax income lower than $1 million. Only by creating a sustainable, progressive tax base will we be able to finally allocate appropriate funding for K-12 education.
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?
Will Dreher: I support a more robust state investment in K-12 education, including by looking at increasing the statutory limits on the state school levy rate or the annual growth rate limits, which could correspondingly reduce the need for districts’ reliance on local levies. I support levy equalization funding at the State level to help offset disparities between districts. But at least until we are able to create a sustainable, fully funded model for K-12 education at the state level, I do not support overly restricting local districts’ ability to raise local school enrichment levies. Investments in education are not zero-sum, and absent a sufficient state baseline level of funding, overly capping local enrichment levies can result in fewer dollars flowing to education across the State, not more dollars for property-poor districts.
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?
Will Dreher: No. The State’s funding for special education remains inadequate given local districts’ actual special education costs, leading local districts to rely on enrichment levies to cover their basic educational needs. I would support increasing the K-12 special education multiplier, and tracking that multiplier over time relative to actual SPED costs.
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?
Will Dreher: No, Washington’s MSOC formula has not in recent years kept pace with actual costs like insurance or the cost of fuel or energy costs. Districts are therefore covering the difference themselves (and, realistically, parents and teachers are often covering the gaps in basic supplies, which I also did as a teacher!). The gap in MSOC funding between state funding and actual costs is one of the largest such gaps in the budget. I would support explicitly requiring reliance on inflation adjustments that track real cost drivers, or re-establishing the appropriate baseline MSOC cost every few years based on actual costs. Likewise, I would support a one-time hike to cover the MSOC underfunding that has persisted for nearly a decade. The legislature will also have more detailed MSOC expenditure categories following the 2026-27 school year.
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?
Will Dreher: I’m a parent and former teacher who now sues large technology companies, and youth mental health, and in particular mental health from the debilitating, addictive effects of social media, screen time, and AI use, is at the center of my campaign. I support increasing state-funded staffing allocations for counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and nurses, and expanding school-based health centers and partnerships with community providers, so schools aren’t the only option.
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?
Will Dreher: I’m a parent and former teacher who now sues large technology companies, and youth mental health, and in particular mental health from the debilitating, addictive effects of social media, screen time, and AI use, is at the center of my campaign. I support increasing state-funded staffing allocations for counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and nurses, and expanding school-based health centers and partnerships with community providers, so schools aren’t the only option.
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.
Will Dreher: A safe school environment is one in which children are well fed, free of fear, and focused on learning, and in which staff feel as safe coming to work as any other employees do going to their jobs. Schools today face a range of threats and safety risks, from mass shootings to swatting incidents to attempts by ICE agents to access schools to youth gang violence. I investigated many of those types of incidents when I was a federal prosecutor. Responding to those threats requires investments in building security and emergency preparedness, including training for staff and students, such as: I would also seek to fully fund previously unfunded mandates related to, e.g., school-based threat assessment teams that work to investigate and disrupt school violence; I would look at a House version of SB 5906, which aimed to require judicial warrants to access nonpublic areas of school grounds and to limit staff members’ collection of immigration information about students and their families; and given the particular challenges associated with child sex trafficking in the Aurora corridor, I would support investments into additional funding for student security near known sex trafficking locations, to protect students who are commuting or walking to school from harassment or solicitation. In terms of conditions inside schools, the research is clear that harsher punishment for minor misconduct is ineffective; by contrast, early and frequent intervention is effective. Schools need enough counselors and behavioral specialists to catch problems early, and manageable class sizes to improve classroom management. Finally, I’m one of the few candidates pledging to protect students from online harms such as deepfakes, sextortion, and cyberbullying, including through mandatory in-classroom education, and who is alert to the risks associated with the AI surveillance technologies or discipline tools that some vendors are marketing to schools. I would regulate such tools heavily.
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?
Will Dreher: I would fight to restore Transition to Kindergarten funding, and to increase funding for pre-K programs across the State, with an eventual aim of universal pre-K. While our state funding for funded pre-K slots is above average, the percent of 3-4 year olds enrolled in public preschool in Washington is dismal relative to many states. Perhaps the best ROI for any state funds comes via investments into early learning.
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?
Will Dreher: I’d support rethinking the prototypical model in pursuit of a student-based allocation (with student weights) of the type that most states use. The prototypical model’s staffing ratios and allocations haven’t kept pace with what schools actually need, and don’t reflect the actual hiring practices of local schools either. It also doesn’t fund certain things like reading and math specialists and ongoing educator professional development. In terms of tweaking the prototypical model, some changes I would support include (but are not limited to) the following: Updating staffing ratios to reflect real classroom conditions, with attention to class size and the intensity of student needs; adding allocations for reading and math specialists, and increasing the allocation for librarians so that each school can have one; and professional development; and increasing funding for special education and for students with the greatest 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?
Will Dreher: Yes, I support it, and I’ll fight any effort to repeal it. Washington has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country. Families in the bottom fifth pay an effective tax rate more than three times what the top 1 percent pay. A 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million begins to fix that while sparing nearly every household. On allocation, most of the revenue goes into the general fund, which in turn would be allocated to K-12 in significant amounts, which I support. I would like to support dedicated and stable revenue streams for K-12 education in the future.
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?
Will Dreher: I would seek to be an accessible legislator to those (students, parents, and educators) who want to participate in education policy decisions. That means not just being available during session, but hosting listening sessions and office hours outside of session, and attending SPS district community meetings, like the one at Thornton Creek earlier this fall. In terms of public accessibility, I would support far greater transparency in terms of the district budget, staffing, and student outcomes across schools. While the OSPI website does contain various datasets and data compilations, a single integrated statewide dashboard that is more user friendly could be funded at a low cost. In addition, certain instructional interventions should require parental involvement (when feasible), which will increase the number of opportunities for parents to receive feedback from teachers. The most important mechanism for ensuring accountability is updated data on state school performance and reviews of district-level implementation of state policies. OSPI is responsible for significant oversight of local districts’ compliance, including with special education obligations, but those oversight responsibilities are scattered throughout OSPI, and tend to focus on specific program areas (like special education). It may be appropriate to look at additional funding for an office at OSPI dedicated to tracking districts’ compliance - a unified model of compliance across program areas, akin to what a few states have experimented with.
