OLYMPIA — The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the state back in to court Sept. 7 to lay out its progress and give the expected costs to fulfill its constitutional requirement to properly fund basic education.
In a four-page order, the court notes that the 2017 legislative session “presents the last opportunity for complying with the State’s paramount duty.”
The justices have held the state in contempt over the Legislature’s failure to make a plan for resolving the remaining issues over paying the full costs of basic education, while ending its overreliance on local tax levies.
Last August, the high court ordered the state to set aside $100,000 a day in sanctions — to ultimately be used for education spending — for its lack of progress. The money was supposed to be put into a dedicated education account, but lawmakers did not allocate that money when writing a supplemental budget earlier this year. There is enough money in reserves to cover the amount of the sanctions, which is currently more than $33 million, according to the Office of Financial Management.
“What remains to be done to achieve compliance is undeniably huge, but it is not undefinable,” Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote for the unanimous court.
The court ordered that the state and the coalition that sued it to both appear. But the high court specifically asks the state to provide detailed answers to several questions, including the estimated costs for fully funding K-12 education, as well as how the state plans to pay for it. The court also wants to know “what remains to be done to timely achieve compliance.”
The state has a Aug. 22 deadline to file a brief addressing the court’s questions, and the plaintiffs — a coalition of school districts, teachers, parents and community groups that sued the state over education funding — must file their answer no later than Aug. 29.
A bipartisan legislative task force that has been charged with defining the actual likely costs anticipated to meet the funding requirements has been meeting over the summer, most recently on Wednesday.
The task force has also been instructed to make recommendations on how to pay for it, as well as addressing teacher pay.
The task force’s report is due by Jan. 9, the first day of the 2017 legislative session.
A decision on whether to dismiss the contempt order or to continue sanctions will come following the September hearing, Madsen wrote.
