Nearly one year after the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the state stands in violation of its constitutional duty to fully fund education, two things are becoming clear.
-
The court is serious about meeting the requirements of the constitution.
-
State legislators and the governor-elect are not.
The evidence is an exchange between the Legislature and the court as required by the court’s ruling in McCleary v. State. After finding that the lawmakers and the governor have failed to meet the constitution’s “paramount duty” to amply fund basic education, the court took the unprecedented step of retaining jurisdiction over the case until 2018. Between now and then, the court wanted annual reports from the state in which the justices expected to see the state “demonstrate steady progress” toward meeting its constitutional duties. That progress must be “real and measurable” so as to finish the job by 2018. But in its assessment of the state’s first filing, the court found plenty of reporting but not much progress. “The state’s first report falls short,” wrote Chief Justice Barbara Madsen on behalf of the court.
The filing repeats the history already contained in the McCleary ruling and describes various committees created to study the problem, she noted. “But the report does not sufficiently indicate how full compliance with (the constitution) will be achieved.”
Listening to partisan bickering that has not been altered by the court’s mandate, it is hard to see how the next report will be any more satisfying. And while the court did not address itself to Gov.-elect Jay Inslee, it did not seem convinced by his recent statements that it had to be more patient.”We’re not going to resolve the McCleary decision in the next 12 months,” Inslee said in a KING-TV interview. Wrote Madsen: “Each day there is a delay risks another school year in which Washington children are denied the constitutionally adequate education that is the State’s paramount duty to provide.”