Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Supreme Court considers contempt ruling over Legislature’s school funding progress

Donna Gordon Blankinship Associated Press

OLYMPIA – Based on the questions asked during a Washington Supreme Court hearing Wednesday, it’s anyone’s guess what the court’s next step will be toward forcing the Legislature to fix how the state pays for education.

Ideas flying around the Temple of Justice even included a suggestion by one justice that they could decide that every state tax exemption is unconstitutional. Justice Charles Johnson estimated that idea would free up about $30 billion, more than enough to pay for basic education for the state’s schoolchildren.

“What you propose would certainly be an efficient remedy,” acknowledged Deputy Solicitor General Alan D. Copsey, speaking for the state. “I don’t think it would be a constitutional remedy.”

Wednesday’s hearing followed a Supreme Court order asking lawyers representing the Washington Legislature to explain why they had not set out a plan for fully paying for basic education.

The 2012 McCleary decision said lawmakers were not meeting their constitutional responsibility to pay for basic education and were relying too much on local tax-levy dollars to balance the education budget.

The court commended the Legislature for passing some reforms in the K-12 system and for starting to pay for them. The McCleary decision orders the Legislature to finish paying for the reforms, which may add more than $4 billion to the state’s biennial budget, according to some estimates.

The court gave the Legislature until the 2017-18 school year to fix the problem.

In June, the court ordered the state to show why the justices should not hold the state in contempt or impose other sanctions.

Copsey said the court already has the Legislature’s full attention: Neither a finding of contempt nor sanctions would be necessary to get lawmakers to finish their work on education.

He was asked several times why the court should trust the Legislature after lawmakers ignored several orders to make measurable progress on education finance reform and to come up with a plan to finish their work.

Justice Debra Stephens asked what is going to be different in the 2015 legislative session that didn’t happen in 2014 or 2013.

“The passage of time matters in this case,” Copsey said, after acknowledging, “I certainly can’t predict the future.”

Thomas Ahearne, an attorney who represents a coalition of parents, students, teachers and community groups, urged the justices to hold the Legislature in contempt and to pick whatever sanctions they believed would be enough to coerce lawmakers into complying with their orders. If the court doesn’t act now, he warned, they will be sitting in the same courtroom next summer having the same discussion about contempt, and by then it might be too late to make sure the McCleary decision is fulfilled by the 2017-18 school year.

“Kicking the can down the road is just one more delay,” Ahearne said.

Among reforms awaiting payment: all-day kindergarten in every school; more instructional hours for high school students to help them earn 24 credits to graduate; pupil transportation fully supported by state dollars; a new formula for school staffing levels; smaller classes in the lower grades; and more state support for school equipment and supplies.