February 12, 2025
Fully Lifting the Cap on State Funding for Support Staff
Every student deserves a safe and healthy school environment where they are supported academically, socially, and emotionally. Support staff, like social workers, custodians, and food service staff, play a critical role in addressing the barriers that students face so that they can focus on and engage in learning. Yet during the Great Recession, lawmakers put a “cap” on how much they would invest in school support staff — an arbitrary limit that is still harming our students. Alongside partners, advocates, and legislative champions, we made progress in the past to partially lift this cap so that the state would pay more of its fair share of education costs.
This session, both the House and Senate provided funds to fully lift the support cap in their proposals and pay the state’s share of 4,725 additional support staff for the 2025-2026 school year. For some school divisions, it will mean more support staff in schools. For others, it will lift some of the cost burden that was shifted onto localities when the cap was put in place, freeing up local dollars to invest in other critical areas. Regardless, it will result in greater support for our schools and students, and lawmakers should include it in the final budget.
