LEGISLATURE 2025-26: Sound Off: Head Start in the summer offers credits and confidence

State Representative Dave Paul (D-Oak Harbor) wrote an opinion piece about his work on the Running Start program for the Whidbey News-Times. Read the whole article.

We’re not just preparing students for degrees; we’re preparing them for careers, for the skilled trades, for leadership, and for life. And we’re doing it with a system that listens to their needs and meets them where they are.

That means breaking down historic inequities, too.

For too long, Running Start has been disproportionately accessed by middle- and upper-income families who already knew how to navigate the system. That’s not justice. That’s a gap we must close. That’s why HB 1316 also requires every public school to notify students and families of all dual-credit opportunities because opportunity only works when people know it exists.