Lawmakers have until 2018 to meet requirements of fully funding public education, as outlined in the state constitution. Who’s going to pay for this ($100,000 daily sanction) and what kind of difference will that make?
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Class size reduction is another piece of unfinished business for the Legislature, and it remains a high priority for teachers, Berg-Layton said. The court found lawmakers in contempt last September, but opted against handing down penalties until now. Today the Supreme Court reached a frustration point. But lawmakers don’t have a plan to pay for more classrooms or training the teachers needed to handle the extra classes.
In broad strokes, the bill would start a four-year, $3.5 billion shift in 2018 from local school districts’ tab for paying for basic education – mostly teachers’ basic salaries – to the responsibility of the state government.
The court also urged Gov. Jay Inslee to convene a special session of the Legislature, in which lawmakers could pass an education funding plan that would bring the state into compliance with the court’s 2014 order.
Response from legislators was mixed.
“All I can do is say that many of us have thought all along that the direction we were heading was not sufficient”, Frockt said.
“I’m not aware, ever, of a state supreme court doing this”, University of Kentucky associate law professor Scott R. Bauries said in a New York Times report.
We are about five months away from the 2016 regular session. In Tuesday’s order, the court clearly underlined its authority in enforcing its rulings. “It is time for articles of impeachment”.
The Court also suggested that the Legislature go back into special session to work on the problem of school funding without delay, noting that legislators figured out how to raise billions of additional dollars for highway construction on a bipartisan basis only a few weeks ago.
Despite what the court said was “promising reform” progress, the court said it has repeatedly ordered the state to provide a plan to fully comply with the ruling, and that the state has continued to fail to do so.
The state needs to appropriate far more funds than it has for education. It envisions reductions in local property taxes for schools in the state’s 295 school districts while ramping up state educational property taxes and funding, in order to end the inequity of richer school districts spending more for teachers and smaller class sizes than poorer districts do.
“I’m very excited that the court is upholding the rights of the students of Washington to have a fully funded education”, said Adele Berg-Layton, president of the North Mason Education Association.
Members of both parties in the Senate described that legislation as merely “a plan to make a plan” and proposed other ways to revise the levy system. “Thirty years of an unconstitutional levy structure has created unconscionable pockets of poverty where teachers and students have been victims of unequal funding”. “They figured out a way to get our attention in a way that doesn’t hurt kids”.
“We’ve now pretty much run out of time”, said Mark Hottowe, superintendent at Battle Ground Public Schools.
State Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, said the court action “stings” and “means some significant cash”, but he agrees with it. “The Supreme Court fails to recognize that the current Legislature can not bind a future Legislature”.
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The governor did not discuss plans for a special session.
