In Our View: Small Victory In Olympia

There is an aphorism that suggests small victories should be celebrated.

With that in mind, it seems appropriate to acknowledge some progress in the Legislature toward solving the conundrum of school funding. Don’t get us wrong. This isn’t a parade-and-fireworks type of bash; after all, the heavy lifting still needs to be done. But with the state Senate passing a plan to essentially come up with a plan, well, it appears to be better than nothing.

Senators voted 26-23 to approve a bipartisan, bicameral task force to work on providing court-mandated funding for basic K-12 education throughout the state. The bill — which was supported by local Sens. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, but opposed by Don Benton, R-Vancouver — already had been approved by the House of Representatives (local Democrats there voted in favor, while Republicans voted in opposition).

Rivers, who helped negotiate the agreement to come up with an agreement and earned praise from Gov. Jay Inslee for her work, said, “The reality is there is no perfect bill. There’s not one bill that’s going to address every issue that we have in funding our K-12 education system.” But a step forward is preferable to the gridlock that has marked the issue for four years now.

The celebration, of course, is tempered by questions about what took so long. In 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled in McCleary v. Washington that the Legislature’s education funding was inadequate and that the lack of funding unconstitutionally forced school districts to rely upon local tax levies for basic educational services. Eventually, an increase in state spending will allow districts to reduce the tax burden placed on local residents. The justices gave the Legislature until 2018 to provide full funding, and in 2014 they held lawmakers in contempt for failing to come up with a plan for meeting that deadline. Last year, the court added to the contempt citation by issuing a $100,000-a-day fine.

All of that led to a robust debate in the Senate this week. Sen. Cyrus Habib, D-Bellevue, said: “The time for plans and promises and pledges has got to be over. I consider this bill to be essentially telling the court, ‘The check’s in the mail.’ ” Cleveland added: “So, after all these years debating and negotiating and in an attempt to meet our McCleary obligation, we just passed a bill to create a task force to continue talking.”

The problem is the need for continued talk at this stage. The Legislature added significant education funding during the 2013 and 2015 budget-writing sessions, and yet those additions were inadequate and were not accompanied by a long-range plan. That dereliction of duty was evident this week in the decision to eventually decide.

The bill that was passed includes a provision asking districts for details about how those districts are spending funds so lawmakers can assess how much money is needed. Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, who sits on the House Education Committee, said, “That definition has become critical. … And I think we’ll get that figured out next year and we will fund it.” Harris is right: That information is critical. Yet it tests the bounds of credulity to think that lawmakers did not begin seeking it four years ago.

Alas, this is not the time for piling criticism upon the Legislature. It is a time for celebrating a small victory from lawmakers and the hope for an eventual solution. But we’ll pass on the streamers and balloons for now.