Manufacturing a Seattle Public Schools Deficit: Why we always have 100M+ in the bank but keep having to cut staff

TL;DR Over the past decade and more, our Budget Books have had three widely different numbers representing each year’s September Beginning Balance for the General Fund making it extremely hard to understand the solvency of the district. In 2024–2025, there was a $102-million difference between lowest to highest in those numbers. This gap represents a consistent lack of reconciling the budget balance with the actuals and a systemic recurring 6% (of total budget) over-estimate of the deficit size. For the past 2 years, SPS only had an actual deficit of $13M and $42M vs. the budget’s predicted deficit of $101M and $80M respectively. This puts the district in the position of having to preemptively cut services in order to balance out misprediction even if the actual deficit is not as severe.