WA schools chief wants to sever connection between timber sales, K-12 construction

State revenue from logging public land would no longer be used for building and remodeling schools in urban areas under a new set of recommendations from Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal.

Instead, the money generated by timber sales and leasing on public school trust lands would go toward school construction in rural districts and be used for sustaining healthy forests. 

During a news briefing Tuesday, Reykdal outlined several proposals for the Legislature to decouple the state’s K-12 Common School Trust revenue from statewide school construction funding support and ensure dollars generated in rural areas go toward supporting schools there.

At times, Reykdal sounded more like an environmental leader than a superintendent as he talked up the need for healthy forests to capture carbon and efforts to help natural resources withstand climate change. It was unclear how his recommendations to change education-focused public trust spending could affect state timber harvests. 

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