Dive Brief:
- On Monday, Washington state's Attorney General requested that the state Supreme Court lift the contempt order, which said the state was moving too slowly on a previous order to increase school budgets, passed last fall.
- Arguments were due from both sides earlier this week and opponents took a divergent stance, asking the court to enact immediate and severe sanctions against the legislature.
- This session, the legislature added $1.3 billion in funding for schools over the next two years, but failed to overturn the state's funding structure, which relies on local tax revenues for district budgeting and has been deemed unconstitutional.
Dive Insight:
Education debates are increasingly being hashed out in state court systems, with parent groups, teacher unions, and even school districts taking their funding and reform-related concerns as high as state Supreme Courts. In the case of Washington, the issue of insufficiently funded schools has been making its way through the court system for years, with repeated ballot initiatives calling for smaller class sizes and bigger budgets, and repeated court mandates that the legislature boost funding. But progress has been slow and divisive, with some observers saying the political and economic realities are simply too great to clear.
Thomas Ahearne, the attorney for the plaintiffs, called this a "fish or cut bait" moment for the court. The court, he said, needs to "either stand up and enforce Washington schoolchildren's positive constitutional right to an amply funded education, or sit down and confess it was only kidding when it assured Washington schoolchildren that this Court would vigilantly protect them from the government's violation of their constitutional rights."
Last fall, the court postponed a decision about the requested sanctions until the legislative session ended, in hopes the legislature would make progress. It's not clear if the state Congress’ work was sufficient to dodge further court intrusion.