The full Seattle City Council will vote Tuesday afternoon whether to stick with a plan to cut a planned $20 million of funding for student mental health in half due to budget concerns.
Councilmember Tammy Morales is bringing forward legislation rejected at the committee level that would protect an agreement reached with students in 2023 to allocate $20 million per year to fund mental health services in Seattle’s schools.
The mid-year supplemental budget recently proposed by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office released only $10 million of that funding. Last week, a council committee rejected a Morales amendment to release the full $20 million for student mental health.
Morales said she will bring the amendment to the full council for a vote despite the rejection.
“We must keep our promises to Seattle’s kids. To my fellow councilmembers who called for change after the shootings at Ingraham High, Garfield High, and schools across our nation – now is the time for action,” Morales said in a statement. “It’s time for us to put our money where our mouth is, live up to our values, and reject this effort to shortchange Seattle students. Our kids, our entire community is watching.”
As King County faces a surge in deadly shootings involving both young victims and young perpetrators, families and school officials are calling on the district and the city to do more to make schools including Garfield High safer in time for the start of classes for the new year in September.
CHS reported here on calls from families and principal Tarance Hart for strengthened safety measures including some calling for the return of a dedicated police officer assigned to Garfield and hallways metal detectors after a student was shot to death in the school parking lot in June in a day filled with gun violence on the Central District campus.
Intervention programs like Community Passageways and mental health services and resources will also be part of an effective response, advocates say.
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What is the current allocation for City Council’s mental health? Not enough.
And 6 billion in arrears in education funding. Then a judge says ‘pay up’ and they fight that! But $3 an hour per employee for every hour they work can go to the greedy “small business owners”.
What a bunch of self dealing garbage. They could care less.
Mayor Harrell came to the reopening event at Garfield after the recent tragic killing of Amarr Murphy-Paine. He gave a small speech ensuring the community that the city had our back. This now feels like a photo op with lip service.
Correct. That’s his specialty.
If that was true he would’ve done something after the 6 previous shootings at/around Garfield. The reality is he doesn’t actually care.
You just won the internet!
It’s truly shameful.
Where is Joy Hollingsworth on this? Why isn’t she speaking up? After all of her “public safety” town halls after shootings and Garfield being in her district, one would think she might have an opinion –
The people who voted to release money to the mental health community are:
Morales
Saka (begrudgingly)
Hollinsworth
Woo
If you notice, Martiza Rivera was the only POC to support the city re-absorbing the money.
She’s still licking her wounds from cutting her nose off for a lousy $3.
Ummm…it was a photo op. What if he didn’t show up? Platitudes and placating are politics staples.
Do these advocates have any peer reviewed data to back up where they want to spend this money?
Are you seriously asking for peer-reviewed data on whether or not spending more money on the mental health of children helps to reduce anti-social and violent behavior in said children?
Only in the USA–where only bare-bones mental health coverage exists for those sufficiently poor or old enough to be covered under Medicaid and Medicare, and in every other circumstance our mental health is directly tied to our material wealth–could someone question whether spending money on these programs is actually worth it.
Are you suggesting cuts to those mental health programs would serve those students better?
You speak like you’re talking about specific programs that need to be saved, but these mental health programs don’t exist. The school district didn’t ask for this money and doesn’t have a plan for it. The city doesn’t have a plan for it and never did.
I’m not against spending money on improving children’s mental health. The unfortunate reality is these groups have proven time and time again to make poor use of taxpayer funds.
It’s entirely possible to spend this money on a strategy that has no evidence that it improves the mental health of children. It’s not unreasonable to ask how they plan to use it.
How has that been proven “time and again/” You just pedantically demanded proof that providing mental health services to kids works at all (something so ridiculous, out of the thousands of studies and meta-analyses, how about you find one that shows it has no effect or is bad for kids? You demand to be spoon-fed proof of something that has been proven thousands of times (in both peer-reviewed studies and in countries with national health care systems that provide mental health services and demonstrate statistically-superior outcomes) and then casually say something’s been proven (that has absolutely not been proven) time and time again.
Provide any evidence at all that many or most of these groups are a poor use of taxpayer funds.
Google has the answers but I’ll save you a click
https://www.kuow.org/stories/king-county-gave-millions-to-no-new-youth-jail-activists-to-help-kids-then-they-looked-away
Wow…That’s a giant load of crap. The whole thing.
Please tell me where you referenced your information. I need some humble pie.
I’ll wait.
You are talking to ignorant people who actually know nothing about the subject matter.
Their version is movie ratings and warning labels. And forced religion in school. Memorizing bible verses.
The same not-for-profits who take all the money for “solving” the homelessness crisis.
This is correct. Given what a bad job they did at that I’m pretty convinced that this money will not solve the problem of violence. Perhaps the problem is not needing more funding but meeting community to up its game on its behavior.
aww…cutting into your profits?
Less housing for profits for the homeowners and rental units.
Budgets are what they are, if there is not enough money the next headline will read “Seattle proposes new property tax to fund youth mental health” and people will be outraged. I live in the cd and have for 28 years and the number of unregistered vehicles in our neighborhood is astounding, on my street, 3 blocks either way 60% of the cars have expired tabs. This is money that the city is throwing away by allowing this to continue. I have filed over 130 findit fixit for these cars only for them to be closed with no action. I don’t hate unregistered vehicles, but people need to contribute to the society in which they live.
I don’t understand what we are doing in this city anymore, there are so many opportunities to fill the coffers just by upholding the current laws of the city.
It is crazy making to read about this type of budget cut, these kids need fucking help, what are we doing?
You are absolutely right. I see many many opportunities for revenue just by enforcing existing laws at the State , County and city level. Add to that the revenue in this area is huge per capita and organizations continually have their hands out for more but they are never audited, never held to provide results etc etc. yet we need more and more money. Well maybe they have to work to get their money like everyone else.
And you are right these kids need help, are they getting it? Does anyone ask them how effective the programs are?
The city should boot those unregistered vehicles like they do in other cities. The coffers would start filling up quick.
Vehicle registration/tabs goes to roads and bridges. Not education. But you do you. A short essay on false premise…I know who you vote for.
“It is crazy making to read about this type of budget cut, these kids need fucking help, what are we doing?”
You need to go back to school. Start at 4th grade. You missed a class in the 4th grade. Second. We need people to vote for schools. These old timers had it all handed to them. Parents didn’t buy school supplies. They were provided. Field trips were usually free. Free or cheap college educations.
They have theirs and for the first time in American history. Gen X did worse…In fact? EVERY generation after them is doing worse.
They are a stain on Americas’ history. A over rated entitled bunch wo’s become sociopathic over wealth. Simply referring to them as “Boomers” gets anger from them. “Ageist”…etc. Yet? The things they say about younger folks. Minorities. Especially hispanic and black folks. They are often mean and nasty. But that is what they call “facts”. “They don’t understand”…”Know nothing kids”. But none of it is racist, misogynistic, ageist, anti democratic, out of touch greed, and so on.
There’s nothing we can do with these people. They will never “pay it forward” they will simply lie about their situations. A half truth is a lie.
Older people are racist, anti democratic, out of touch, greedy misogynistic, mean and nasty? Where does that come from? I have never met these people. When is the last time a school levy has failed in Seattle? The last one passed by 78% When did schools provide supplies? I want to go there. The money for mental health will come from the Seattle City Budget and the council is making this decision not voters. 28 years has a point. Though registration fees go to the state for roads, part of the fee paid goes to city and county projects.
I didn’t say that. I said the most powerful, active voting groups vs. kids who can’t vote. 21 voting age turned to 18 and other voting advantages.
Taxes were $22 kids vs $1 seniors. That’s flipped on its head. Ask the state super court how we are doing on our #1 constitutional responsibility as taxpayers? 6 billion in the hole and the schools are falling apart. They depend on 3.5 kids to support their lifestyle.
I explained it. You took it a whole other direction. All of these people were voted into office and it was not the kids. Why people get defensive over the generational labels is beyond me. I’m gen X. My kids are millennials. And even though they don’t vote because they couldn’t. It’s the older generations that disparage them. Even though they had it all handed to them.
Look at tax rates before and after Reagan. Whatever…These people want to be responsible for the good stuff. And not the bad stuff. Even though it was all on their watch and still is.
Voting for wealth incumbency like raising the age to get Social security for everyone but themselves repeatedly. Tiered contracts. Selling out people not even hired yet repeatedly. The list is almost endless.
Noam Chomsky “Requiem for the American Dream” is my argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZnuc-Fv_Tc
You know what would be good for my Garfield teen’s mental health? Not being worried about getting shot at the bus stop.
Yes!
Hopefully they read your comment. It’s genius!
There’s a lot of smart people on the council. I am sure they already thought about that and are convinced it’ll never work.
Ya see? A councilor does nothing.
But a cop in school? No more off campus shootings. That’s how they square the circle.
I like your idea better.
They would consider that feeling underrated and they are all not worth much. A small check from us the tax payers. It’s pathetic. Small towns and big ones have police right there where the kids are when the arrive and leave. The places and times they are actually needed.
Or we could actually prosecute, convict, and sentence people who commit crime using guns. Which would be pretty effective towards addressing fear of guns.
But instead we ignore those and focus on making more laws about the guns themselves.
Arresting and prosecuting criminals is the mental health boost we all need. Get the guns off the streets too.
mkay…where do we put these people?
My fear is of being shot and killed not of someone not being arrested and prosecuted after I’m shot and killed.
Or we could actually follow policies that lead to a direct drop in gun crimes as evidenced by nearly every single country on earth that has done the same.
Right, because guns are the problem.
New York murders…70% of the guns were bought in 4 states. All with lax gun laws.
The fact is people like you are going to say whatever they want. But eventually you’ll be outnumbered.
When Kamala is POTUS? buh bye assault weapons.
Only a ban on the commercial sale of firearms to the public will alleviate gun violence. Nothing else has ever or will ever work. It’s 2024 and we all know this. We’re just continuing the fantasy and enabling common everyday gun violence pretending anything else will curb gun violence. Guns around = Gun violence. Leave ur fantastical boomer 20th century rebuttals below.
Yes…A cop in school. That’ll solve nothing. These things don’t happen inside. Gangs do it outside.
Anything to claw back money for businesses. Kids are not their priority. Clearly. They want control. But not the kind anyone else would actually appreciate.
I am in favor of robust mental health services for students, but I agree with others here who want to have effective monitoring (and outcome data) in place for those who provide those services.
But what about the thugs who commit crimes on our near school grounds? The murderer of Amarr Murphy-Paine recently has not been arrested yet, but chances are pretty good he wasn’t a student. He needs to be caught asap and prosecuted in an aggressive manner. It’s too late to provide mental health help for him!