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.