Some House Republicans are again proposing to split education funding from the rest of the state budget, saying it would keep students from being used as bargaining chips as lawmakers decided the state spending plan.
They call the notion “Fund Education First,” and it has failed repeatedly since Republicans first introduced it in the Legislature in 2006.
Democrats generally oppose the idea, saying lawmakers can’t fund education in isolation without knowing how it might impact other spending obligations.
But the Republican who filed House Bill 1001 on Dec. 5 says this year may be different. With a Republican-controlled Senate and pressure from voters and the state Supreme Court to fund basic education for all Washington students, Rep. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, thinks his bill has more of a chance than usual.
“It’s our paramount duty to fund education first,” MacEwen said. “It’s time we do something. What I’m hoping to do is (remove) the politics from getting an education budget done.”
MacEwen’s bill would mandate lawmakers fund education before anything else. It would require the Legislature to pass a stand-alone education budget and send it to the governor in biennial appropriation years no later than March 31 – weeks before the state’s budget is traditionally finished, MacEwen said.
In shorter, supplemental budget sessions, that deadline would be Feb. 15. Early action would give school districts more time to plan for the year ahead and put pressure on lawmakers to prioritize education, he said.
His bill would also require schools to be funded from existing revenue sources, not with new taxes.
“If we’ve got to make revenue adjustments, we’ll do that,” MacEwen said. “But we’re not going to hold up education because of it.”
The Supreme Court has said that legislators must show in this upcoming session that they are making substantial progress toward fully funding basic education as required in the court’s 2012 McCleary decision, or face possible sanctions.
MacEwen thinks that pressure – along with voter approval of a sweeping class-size initiative in the November election – will help his bill gain more traction than in years past.
But Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, chairman of the House appropriations committee, disagrees.
“I think the bill will meet the same landscape it met last year, in that it will get assigned to my committee and I won’t hear it,” Hunter said Tuesday. “It’s a simple idea that doesn’t work.”
The Republican schools-first plan doesn’t take into account other spending obligations outlined in the state Constitution, like courts, public safety and health, Hunter said.
Jim Richards, communications director for the Washington House Democrats, said the Republicans’ proposal is irresponsible budgeting.
“(It’s) a great bumper sticker,” Richards said. “But we don’t believe it’s the right policy.”
