Lawmakers plan to meet again in the next several days to determine what’s next as the state lawmakers are scrambling to come up with a plan to fund education after the state Supreme Court ruled they haven’t done enough.
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Inslee met with leaders from the Senate and House and Attorney General Bob Ferguson Monday at SeaTac City Hall to discuss the latest development in the McCleary education funding lawsuit that has resulted in sanctions against the state of $100,000 a day. Then the governor is set to talk with reporters.
The Washington Supreme Court decided in 2012 that state funding for education is not adequate, equitable or ample.
In its original ruling, and repeated in later follow-up rulings, the justices have told the Legislature to find a way to pay for the reforms and programs they had already adopted, including all-day kindergarten, smaller class sizes, student transportation and classroom supplies, and to fix the state’s overreliance on local tax levies to pay for education.
“I don’t know that a special session is necessarily necessary at this point”, said Kristiansen.
Overall, the class size reductions and the state assumption of the basic funding responsibilities now handled, in part, by the districts could cost roughly $5 billion. “Just more bureaucracy”, said parent Victor Dean.
“We’re good for it”, House budget chairman Ross Hunter said.
Hargrove during the second of the three sessions proposed a capital gains tax for education, but the Republican-controlled Senate did not act on his bill.
The fines could prod the Legislature into a fourth special session this year to come up with a plan for reversing unconstitutional underfunding of schools.
A proposal from Dammeier earlier this year would have raised the statewide common schools levy, while simultaneously lowering local levy rates, to shift the burden of school employee salaries from local districts to the state budget.
“We have got to restore fairness to the system”, Dammeier said.
Even though the $100,000 per-day fines would add up to only about $15 million by January – money the Legislature will tap for future education investments – there is always the threat that court justices could impose heavier sanctions if they fail to see progress, Hunter said. They could shut down public schools or threaten to do so like New Jersey’s Supreme Court did in 1976 after lawmakers failed to put enough money into education.
The court has given the Legislature until 2018 to accomplish the goal but insisted that lawmaker show progress in their 2015 session that stretched into triple overtime and cost an extra $440,000.
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“I think a lot of folks are going to have a really hard time understanding why the Legislature would sit on the sidelines and rack up a $100,000-a-day fine”, said Chris Korsmo, CEO of the Seattle-based League of Education Voters.
