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Data

Washington K-12 money per student after inflation, state test levels and NAEP ranks, 2015-2026

Washington public school money per student from 2014-15 to 2024-25, in dollars and adjusted for inflation three ways; statewide Smarter Balanced test results by achievement level for 2019 and 2022-2026; and Washington's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) averages and ranks for 2013-2024. Built to check claims in a June 2025 dispute between Superintendent Chris Reykdal and the Washington Policy Center.

Coverage: School years 2014-15 to 2024-25 (funding); spring 2019 and 2022-2026 (state tests); 2013-2024 (NAEP)

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What this dataset measures

Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in June 2025 that schools have less money per student after inflation than six years earlier and that about three quarters of students are at grade level. The Washington Policy Center said about 60% of students are not on track in math and 50% in English, and that Washington's fourth-grade NAEP math rank fell from 10th to 27th. Each claim depends on which money is counted, which price index is used, and which test cut line is used, so the dataset keeps every variant side by side.

Geography
Washington, United States
Unit of observation
Statewide value per school year, per test year and subject, or per NAEP year, grade and subject
Update cadence
Annual; refresh when OSPI publishes the 2025-26 financial summary (about December 2026) and Census publishes fiscal 2025 school finance data.
Curator
FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

These related tables form this versioned dataset release. Each table has its own downloadable file and field definitions.

Washington K-12 money per student, 2014-15 to 2024-25

Five measures of per-student money, each in current dollars and in 2024-25 dollars under U.S. CPI-U, the BEA state and local government price index, and Seattle-area CPI-U.

Unit of observation: School year and measure

View this table

per-student-funding.csv text/csv · 2.9 KB (2,920 bytes)
6 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
school_year string School year, July to June. — observed
measure_id string gf-spending-all-funds: OSPI General Fund expenditures per pupil, all fund sources (F-196 Table Two). gf-spending-excl-covid: the same minus COVID relief programs 11-14, 19 and 23. state-local-revenue: General Fund revenue codes 1000-4000 per pupil, the measure OSPI's 2026 chart uses. state-revenue: codes 3000-4000 only. census-current-spending: Census per-pupil current spending. — observed
nominal_per_student number Dollars per student in that year's prices. US dollars observed
real_2024_25_us_cpi number Nominal value in 2024-25 dollars using U.S. CPI-U. 2024-25 US dollars derived
real_2024_25_sl_deflator number Nominal value in 2024-25 dollars using the BEA state and local government price index. 2024-25 US dollars derived
real_2024_25_seattle_cpi number Nominal value in 2024-25 dollars using Seattle-area CPI-U. Not computed for 2014-15. 2024-25 US dollars derived

School-year price indexes

School-year averages of the three price indexes used to adjust for inflation.

Unit of observation: School year

View this table

price-indexes.csv text/csv · 405 bytes
4 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
school_year string School year, July to June. — observed
us_cpi_u number Mean of monthly U.S. CPI-U, July to June. Index, 1982-84 = 100 derived
bea_state_local_price_index number Mean of the two calendar-year values the school year spans. Index, 2017 = 100 derived
seattle_cpi_u number Mean of the six bimonthly Seattle-area CPI-U readings, August to June. Not computed for 2014-15. Index, 1982-84 = 100 derived

Washington statewide Smarter Balanced results by level

All tested grades (3-8 and 10), all students. Level 2 is what OSPI calls foundational grade-level knowledge; Level 3 and above is what it calls on track for college-level learning, formerly reported as meeting standard.

Unit of observation: Spring test year and subject

View this table

sba-statewide.csv text/csv · 1.1 KB (1,132 bytes)
13 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
spring integer Spring test year. No statewide spring test was given in 2020; 2021 was a shortened fall test and is excluded. — observed
subject string English language arts or Math. — observed
sbac_tested integer Students who took Smarter Balanced. students observed
sbac_pct_L1 number Percent of Smarter Balanced test takers at Level 1. percent observed
sbac_pct_L2 number Percent at Level 2. percent observed
sbac_pct_L3 number Percent at Level 3. percent observed
sbac_pct_L4 number Percent at Level 4. percent observed
sbac_pct_L2plus_of_tested number Percent of test takers at Level 2 or above. percent observed
sbac_pct_L3plus_of_tested number Percent of test takers at Level 3 or above. percent observed
combined_expected integer Students expected to test on Smarter Balanced or WA-AIM. students observed
pct_L2plus_of_expected number Students at Level 2 or above on either test, as a percent of all expected to test (OSPI's headline denominator). percent derived
pct_L3plus_of_expected number Students at Level 3 or above, as a percent of all expected to test. percent derived
pct_below_L3_of_expected number 100 minus pct_L3plus_of_expected: the share not on track for college-level learning in OSPI's terms. percent derived

Washington NAEP results and rank, 2013-2024

Public-school averages for grades 4 and 8 in math and reading, Washington's rank among the 50 states by unrounded average, and how many states scored significantly higher, not significantly differently, or lower.

Unit of observation: Subject, grade and year

View this table

naep-washington.csv text/csv · 1.6 KB (1,642 bytes)
10 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
subject string mathematics or reading. — observed
grade integer Grade 4 or 8. — observed
year integer Test year. — observed
wa_mean number Washington public-school average scale score, unrounded. NAEP scale points observed
national_public_mean number National public-school average. NAEP scale points observed
rank_of_50_unrounded integer 1 plus the number of the 50 states with a higher unrounded average. DC and Defense Department schools excluded. — derived
states_significantly_higher integer States (not counting Defense Department schools) whose average was significantly higher than Washington's, per NAEP's significance test. states observed
states_not_significantly_different integer States not significantly different from Washington. states observed
states_significantly_lower integer States significantly lower than Washington. states observed
jurisdictions_significantly_higher string Postal codes of jurisdictions significantly higher; DS is Defense Department schools. — observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

  • analysis-results.json Documentation · application/json · 16.7 KB (17,082 bytes)

    Structured results of the saved analyses, computed from the curated tables.

Saved analyses

Money per student after inflation, two measures and two price indexes

Question: How has Washington's money per student changed after inflation since 2015-16, counting all spending or only state and local money, with national or Seattle prices?

Result: All school spending per student in 2024-25 dollars rose from $17,863 in 2018-19 to $19,371 in 2024-25 with U.S. prices (+8.4%) and from $18,551 to $19,371 with Seattle prices (+4.4%). State and local money per student went from $17,141 to $17,733 with U.S. prices (+3.5%) and from $17,801 to $17,733 with Seattle prices (-0.4%).

Operation: Select gf-spending-all-funds and state-local-revenue from per-student-funding; report real_2024_25_us_cpi and real_2024_25_seattle_cpi.

Scope: Washington statewide

View this analysis

  • General Fund only; excludes construction and debt.
  • All school spending includes federal COVID relief from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

Robustness checks

Percent change in real money per student, by measure, index and window

Question: Under which measure, price index and time window is money per student lower after inflation than six years earlier?

Result: All-funds General Fund spending per student: +3.3% to +8.4% from 2018-19, and +2.4% to +7.1% from 2019-20, depending on index and end year. Census current spending: +2.8% to +6.8% from 2018-19 to 2023-24. State and local money: from -3.8% (Seattle prices, 2018-19 to 2023-24) to +3.7%. State money only: from -6.6% (Seattle prices, 2019-20 to 2023-24) to +3.0%.

Operation: For each measure, base year (2018-19, 2019-20), end year (2023-24, 2024-25) and price index, compute end_real / base_real - 1.

Scope: Washington statewide

View this analysis

  • Census data for 2024-25 not yet released.

Robustness check for: Money per student after inflation, two measures and two price indexes

Share of students at Level 2+ and Level 3+, spring 2024

Question: What share of Washington students reached Level 2 or higher and Level 3 or higher on the spring 2024 state tests?

Result: Reading and writing: 70.9% at Level 2 or higher, 50.2% at Level 3 or higher. Math: 62.8% at Level 2 or higher, 39.7% at Level 3 or higher. So 49.8% in English and 60.3% in math were below Level 3.

Operation: Select spring 2024 rows from sba-statewide; report pct_L2plus_of_expected and pct_L3plus_of_expected.

Scope: Washington statewide, all tested grades

View this analysis

  • Covers grades 3-8 and 10 together.

Share at Level 2+ and Level 3+, 2019 and 2022-2026

Question: How have the two cut lines moved since 2019?

Result: Level 3+ in math fell from 48.9% in 2019 to 39.7% in 2024 and 41.1% in 2026; in English from 59.6% to 50.2% and 50.3%. Level 2+ fell from 72.8% to 62.8% in math and 78.8% to 70.9% in English.

Operation: Select all rows of sba-statewide; report pct_L2plus_of_expected and pct_L3plus_of_expected by year and subject.

Scope: Washington statewide, all tested grades

View this analysis

  • No spring tests in 2020 and 2021.

Washington NAEP rank and states significantly ahead, 2013, 2019, 2024

Question: Where does Washington rank on NAEP, and how many states score significantly higher?

Result: Grade 4 math: 10th in 2013 and 27th in 2024; 3 states were significantly higher in 2013 and 4 in 2024, with 35 statistically tied. Grade 8 math: 7th to 25th, with 14 states significantly higher in 2024. Reading: 4 or 5 states significantly higher in both grades in 2024.

Operation: Select 2013, 2019 and 2024 rows from naep-washington.

Scope: Washington, public schools

View this analysis

  • Defense Department schools, which outscored Washington, are excluded from state counts.

Replication

FactHub's estimates beside published external estimates of the same quantity. The difference is FactHub's value minus the external value.

FactHub analysis External estimate External value FactHub value Difference Note
Money per student after inflation, two measures and two price indexes OSPI press conference slides, September 10, 2026
Slide "Funding Per Student", 2024-25 value 		17733 dollars per student, 2024-25 17733 dollars per student, 2024-25 0 dollars per student, 2024-25 Exact match: General Fund revenue codes 1000-4000 divided by annual average FTE.
Money per student after inflation, two measures and two price indexes OSPI press conference slides, September 10, 2026
Slide "Funding Per Student", 2018-19 Funding Level 		18315 dollars per student, in 2024-25 (OSPI: 2025) dollars, Seattle CPI 17801 dollars per student, in 2024-25 (OSPI: 2025) dollars, Seattle CPI -514 dollars per student, in 2024-25 (OSPI: 2025) dollars, Seattle CPI Same nominal base ($13,663). OSPI's factor (1.34) is close to Seattle CPI for calendar 2025 over calendar 2018, while its 2024-25 value is left unadjusted. Using school-year averages at both ends gives $17,801, so the inflation gap is $68, not $582. This is our inference; OSPI does not publish its index values.

Statements on record

Exact quotes, unaltered, with what surrounded them, the primary source, and an archived copy of it.

we have less money today adjusted for inflation per kid than we did six years ago

Chris Reykdal, Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction FOX 13 Seattle television interview, as transcribed by the Washington Policy Center · · Assertion

Context: The interviewer cited WPC's figures that per-pupil spending rose from $13,775 to $19,163 while about 60% of students were not on track in math, and asked what districts should do differently. Reykdal first said three quarters of students are on grade band, then made this statement, then called the Policy Center a very partisan, ideological group. The wording is from WPC's published transcript; the FOX 13 video has no captions and FactHub did not check the wording against the audio.

Source: Washington Policy Center, "Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results" (David Boze, June 20, 2025)

the real fact is what percentage of kids are at grade level which is about three quarters

Chris Reykdal, Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction FOX 13 Seattle television interview, as transcribed by the Washington Policy Center · · Assertion

Context: Asked whether WPC's numbers were accurate, Reykdal answered that WPC says those kids aren't on grade band, then said this, and added that almost 50 percent are ready for university work without remediation. Earlier in the interview he said "three quarters of our kids are absolutely on grade band." Wording is from WPC's transcript.

Source: Washington Policy Center, "Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results" (David Boze, June 20, 2025)

there's national data that suggests very few states are statistically out-performing Washington

Chris Reykdal, Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction FOX 13 Seattle television interview, as transcribed by the Washington Policy Center · · Assertion

Context: The final clause of his first answer, right after he called the Policy Center a very partisan, ideological group. Wording is from WPC's transcript.

Source: Washington Policy Center, "Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results" (David Boze, June 20, 2025)

about 60 percent not on track for college level learning in math and 50 percent when it comes to English

David Boze, Communications Director, Washington Policy Center Washington Policy Center article · · Assertion

Context: Boze describes the statistics the FOX 13 interviewer put to Reykdal, citing WPC's Report Card for Washington's Future, and says the figures are state data from OSPI.

Source: Washington Policy Center, "Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results" (David Boze, June 20, 2025)

Between 2013 and 2024, fourth grade students in Washington fell from a ranking of 10th in the nation in Math to 27th.

Todd Myers, Washington Policy Center Washington Policy Center article · · Assertion

Context: Myers makes this point in an article criticizing OSPI for removing its state-targets page from the school report card website, as evidence that national scores declined.

Source: Washington Policy Center, "OSPI scrubs website of key data" (Todd Myers, October 8, 2025)

When adjusted for inflation, funding is down $1,000 per student.

Chris Reykdal, Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Key Peninsula News interview · · Assertion

Context: In a profile during his 2024 reelection campaign, Reykdal said peak funding was in 2019 and made this statement, eight months before the FOX 13 interview.

Source: Key Peninsula News, "Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal seeks third term" (October 2, 2024)

Sources

  1. OSPI Financial Reporting Summary 2024-25, Section One General Fund expenditures per pupil, ten-year comparison (Table Two)

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; values reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. Compiled by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction from every district's year-end F-196 financial report. OSPI is Reykdal's agency, but these are audited accounting totals, not advocacy figures.

  2. OSPI 10-year F-196 data, 2015-16 to 2024-25 (spreadsheet) Statewide General Fund revenue by source, expenditures by program, and annual average FTE enrollment

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; values reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. Same district year-end reports as the summary, by revenue code and program. Revenue codes 1000-2000 are local and 3000-4000 are state; federal is 5000-6000.

  3. U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Annual Survey of School System Finances, summary tables Washington per-pupil current spending, fiscal 2019-2024 (Table 20)

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

    Reliability: Government. Federal survey of every state's school finances on a common definition: current spending excluding capital outlay and debt service, per pupil in fall enrollment. Independent of OSPI's own reports.

  4. U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 Annual Survey of School System Finances, summary tables Washington per-pupil current spending, fiscal 2014-2019 (Table 20)

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

    Reliability: Government. Earlier edition of the same federal survey.

  5. BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. city average (CUUR0000SA0) National price index for inflation adjustment

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

    Reliability: Government. Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly consumer price index, not seasonally adjusted.

  6. BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (CUURS49DSA0) Seattle-area price index, the index OSPI uses

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

    Reliability: Government. Bureau of Labor Statistics bimonthly consumer price index for the Seattle metro area.

  7. BEA price index for state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment (via FRED B829RG3A086NBEA) Price index for what state and local governments buy

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

    Reliability: Government. Bureau of Economic Analysis annual implicit price index for state and local government purchases, mostly employee compensation; 2017 = 100.

  8. OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2018-19 (data.wa.gov 4h5k-di3v) Statewide spring 2019 test results by level

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file; statewide All Students rows for all grades.

  9. OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2023-24 (data.wa.gov 5i5h-c5pk) Statewide spring 2024 test results by level, the latest results when Reykdal spoke

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file; statewide All Students rows for all grades, with counts of students expected and tested.

  10. OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2024-25 (data.wa.gov qh4i-zmju) Statewide spring 2025 test results by level

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file.

  11. OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2025-26 (data.wa.gov fusr-6kv7) Statewide spring 2026 test results by level

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file.

  12. data.wa.gov Report Card Assessment Data series (2021-22 and 2022-23 files) Statewide spring 2022 and 2023 test results by level

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

    Reliability: Government. Catalog listing of OSPI's yearly assessment files on the state open-data portal.

  13. OSPI, 2025 assessment data press conference slides (September 2025) OSPI's definitions of Level 2 and Level 3 and its headline Level 2+ shares

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; quoted with attribution.

    Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. Reykdal's agency; its framing of Level 2 as grade-level knowledge is one side of the dispute. The numbers match the data.wa.gov files.

  14. NAEP Data Service and NCES State Snapshot reports, Washington Washington and state NAEP averages and significance tests, 2013-2024

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

    Reliability: Government. National Center for Education Statistics. Same test in every state, so it is independent of Washington's own test. Averages came from the NAEP Data Service API and were checked against the State Snapshot reports.

  15. OSPI press conference slides, September 10, 2026 OSPI's own chart of state and local funding per student after inflation

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; quoted with attribution.

    Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. OSPI uses this chart to ask the Legislature for more money. It shows $18,315 in 2018-19 and $17,733 in 2024-25, adjusted with the Seattle CPI.

  16. Washington Policy Center, "Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results" (David Boze, June 20, 2025) WPC's transcript of the FOX 13 interview and WPC's own test-score claim

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted; short quotations for fact-checking. Quoted briefly with attribution.

    Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. WPC is a party to the dispute. Its transcript is the only text of the interview we found; the video has no captions.

  17. Washington Policy Center, "OSPI scrubs website of key data" (Todd Myers, October 8, 2025) WPC's NAEP ranking claim

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted; short quotations for fact-checking. Quoted briefly with attribution.

    Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. WPC is a party to the dispute.

  18. FOX 13 Seattle, "One-on-one with Washington superintendent of public instruction Chris Reykdal" (video, June 17, 2025) Original interview

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted broadcast; linked, not reproduced. Not redistributed.

    Reliability: News report. The original video. The page has no transcript or captions.

  19. Key Peninsula News, "Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal seeks third term" (October 2, 2024) Earlier Reykdal statement of the same inflation claim

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted; short quotations for fact-checking. Quoted briefly with attribution.

    Reliability: News report. Community newspaper interview with Reykdal during his 2024 reelection campaign.

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Every nominal value is copied from an OSPI, Census, data.wa.gov or NAEP file named in sources. Real values multiply the nominal value by the ratio of the 2024-25 school-year price index to that year's school-year price index. School-year price indexes are July-June means of monthly U.S. CPI-U, the mean of the six bimonthly Seattle-area CPI-U readings from August to June, and the mean of the two calendar-year values of the BEA state and local government price index. Test shares use OSPI's denominator: students reaching a level on Smarter Balanced or the alternate test (WA-AIM), divided by all students expected to test.

  • Money per student uses OSPI's annual average full-time-equivalent enrollment; Census uses fall enrollment, so the two series differ slightly.
  • General Fund spending excludes construction, debt service and transportation vehicle funds.
  • Federal COVID relief (ESSER) raised spending from 2020-21 to 2023-24; a separate measure removes the main COVID program codes, but some first-round relief may sit in other codes.
  • The Seattle-area CPI tracks consumer prices in one metro area and rose faster than national prices (about 30% vs 25% from 2018-19 to 2024-25). School costs are mostly salaries set by statewide formulas.
  • Census fiscal 2025 data were not yet released, so the Census series ends in 2023-24.
  • Math Level 2+ for 2024 computes to 62.8% from rounded published percentages; OSPI's count-based figure is 62.9%.
  • NAEP ranks use unrounded averages among the 50 states; most neighboring ranks are statistical ties.

Publications using this dataset

Version details

The exact citing versions, and the version of this dataset each cites.

  • Article wa-reykdal-school-funding-scores — version 2 (published) cites version 1
  • Chart wa-test-levels-two-cut-lines-2024 — version 1 (published) cites version 1
  • Chart wa-school-money-per-student-real — version 1 (published) cites version 1

Node: dataset:wa-k12-funding-test-levels