Seattle City Council votes to spend $12.5 million to support student mental health

The vote on the issue was tied last week, but supporters of passing the bill argue it’s $7.5 million short of what was promised.

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council voted at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to allocate $12.5 million in funding to programs that support “student mental health.”

The vote on the issue was tied last week, with supporters of the bill arguing it is $7.5 million short of what was promised.

The effort to fund student mental health began as a rallying cry after the 2022 shooting at Seattle’s Ingram High School. Students thought they’d won when the City Council allocated $20 million in a bill for the effort. But this month they found out funding was in trouble, as only $10 million of the promised $20 million had been earmarked for the city’s supplemental budget.

“We all know we are facing a major budget crisis and starting next month we will have to have some tough conversations about how to address this challenge,” City Councilwoman Tammy Morales said during Tuesday’s meeting.

“It’s unfair and unjust to take funds that were promised to these people and to these communities to solve a problem that, frankly, doesn’t solve the problems that we’ve all been talking about over the last few days,” Morales continued.

Councillor Rob Saka scolded his colleagues, saying the promise was broken due to a lack of “foresight and planning” on the council’s part, adding that the city “has not delivered on that promise”.

High school student Leo Farit Baiamonte attended Tuesday’s council meeting. Farit Baiamonte is a member of the Seattle Student Government Association.

“We have very angry people in our city right now, and they’re going to see what changes are going to happen. They’ve defunded the Seattle Police Department budget. You can see here what their priorities are. Their priorities are big business and the police, not students and their actual needs,” he said.

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