The highest court in the state of Washington announced that it would fine the state $100,000 per day for failing to comply with a previous order to fund the public schools fully.
“The state’s highest court Thursday delivered a unanimous order sanctioning the state for failing to come up with a plan to fully fund K-12 education per the court’s 2012 McCleary decision. Lawmakers and the governor are meeting Monday to begin work on it….
“The development comes as the state Supreme Court Thursday morning delivered a unanimous order sanctioning the state for failing to come up with a plan to fully fund K-12 education per the court’s 2012 McCleary decision. The court in September held the state in contempt of its decision and threatened sanctions then.
The order requires a fine of $100,000 per day and encourages Inslee to call a special session so that lawmakers can finish their work. The justices want the penalty money to be held in a special account, “for the benefit of basic education,” according to the order. But the fines will be halted if Inslee calls lawmakers into a special session and they succeed in addressing the issues the court raises….
“In their order, justices took issue with lawmakers’ progress over reducing K-3 class-sizes, as well as the lack of a plan by the state to address teacher compensation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I can already guess what Cuomo’s PR thug will say.
Pretty much the same tune as before.
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Good for the court. But do they have the teeth to make it work? I mean, if they previously ordered the state to pay for education and the state didn’t bother, what incentive does the state now have to either pay for education or pay the fines?
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The reason the Supreme Court took issue with the plan to reduce class size K-3 is because the voters of Washington State passed initiatives to reduce class K-12. Twice. Legislators decided the sleeves to scale that back to the primary grades only.
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That’s supposed to read “Legislatores themselves”
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So they’ll come up with a plan and each fiscal year find a crisis reason to not fund it.
Question is how do you compel a government to fund a budget priority decided every year.
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Also what fund does the $100k come out of – cause something is gonna need to be defunded to set it aside (and then what are the terms for disbursing it)
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“So they’ll come up with a plan and each fiscal year find a crisis reason to not fund it.”
That’s how it works in Oregon. Here, the constitutional duty to adequately fund education can be met by explaining why there’s not enough money to adequately fund education. Yeah, that was a well though out amendment.
“Section 8. Adequate and Equitable Funding. (1) The Legislative Assembly shall appropriate in each biennium a sum of money sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of public education meets quality goals established by law, and publish a report that either demonstrates the appropriation is sufficient, or identifies the reasons for the insufficiency, its extent, and its impact on the ability of the state’s system of public education to meet those goals.”
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How refreshing to read that voters in Washington have been heard…reduce class sizes.
Indiana doesn’t allow special ballets to be voted on by the public. Our politicians believe they have all the correct answers. They ignore polls that show Indiana ranks towards the bottom of the US in almost every area…except being eighth fattest state in the nation.
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In the end, I believe the courts will bring educational equity to students. Here’ s the lawsuit I’d like to see:
Because CA courts have declared that children have a right to equal educational opportunities, I’d like to see a parent whose child is in a “failing” (i.e. poor) school sue to have the child admitted to a high-performing (i.e. affluent) school that is outside his district. Let’s say from dysfunctional L.A. Unified to very high-scoring Palos Verdes schools. I wonder how that would work out. Has anyone tried it?
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That’s the kind of shake-up they need. States will then find it harder to ignore public education inequities, and it would force them to seek solutions within public education.
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This is basis of the whole false premise of the greatness of vouchers. Let parents choose any school that is better performing. The problem comes in transportation to a wealthy district. Usually high performing schools are not next to poverty ridden ones and parents of poor students often don’t have cars or decent public transportation.
Since vouchers don’t cover the complete cost of education, it is beyond what the truly poor can afford. The whole voucher program is creating a two tier level of education.
There is also the problem of does a high performing district’ really want poverty level kids? I’m sure an influx of too many would result in highly educated parents protesting. There is a also racial bias towards those who are different (poor).
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This American Life did a very interesting two part episode on integration and education that brings up several of your points. Definitely worth a listen.
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A voucher sends public tax money to private and religious schools which, in the opinion of many, is not right. My idea is for parents to apply to a high-performing PUBLIC school and use the courts to help their children gain admission.
It’s true that parents at the receiving schools would not like this, but it is the function of the courts to provide fairness for all citizens, even when a particular decision is unpopular.
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Linda,
This is what happened in the Normandy school district in St.Louis. When the students in the Normandy district were given the opportunity to attend a good school district about 30 miles away, a quarter of the Normandy students choose to transfer. When the state attempted to herd them back a judge intervened to allow them to attend the distant school district.
The This American Life two part story The Problem We All Live With is worth a listen.
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Parents have tried this – and been jailed as a result:
http://www.alternet.org/story/152737/20_years_in_prison_for_sending_your_kids_to_the_wrong_school_inequality_in_school_systems_leads_parents_to_big_risks
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Christine,
Parents who send their students to public schools that are outside their district are guilty of theft of services. Some districts employ people to kick these children out of the public school, others put a bounty on them and depend on local tridents to root them out.
What did you think of the This American Life episodes?
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I am not suggesting that parents do it illegally. I’m saying they should appeal to the courts to allow their children to attend the “better” public school.
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No, of course not. I’m just pointing out that the system is set up to be exclusive, and the courts have acted as enforcers.
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Yes, I definitely agree with you on this.
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@ TE
“Parents who send their students to public schools that are outside their district are guilty of theft of services. ”
Schools systems and politicians who fail to fully fund public schools so they can meet the needs of all students are guilty of theft of democracy.
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Off-topic, but did you see that the Chicago Tribune is wishing Chicago a Hurricane Katrina? https://preaprez.wordpress.com/ (That’s a link to Fred Klonsky’s blog, which embeds the Tribune article; I refuse to subscribe or even register for the Trib.)
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This is an ignorant, irresponsible comment. They want a blank slate to rewrite history, and trample on democracy, of course.
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Remember the Austin Powers movie when Doctor Evil demands “one million dollars”, and everyone chuckles? Similar thing here, 100,000 is chump change. But as a precedent for garnishing the budget in the future and sequestering everything non-education, it bodes well.
The actual garnishment to make up the difference to fund basic education would have to be roughly 3 million per day, or 30 times the current fine.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Fascinating stuff. Would be a good topic for discussion in a high school class learning about the separation of powers doctrine.
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In other news funneling money to The AP exams is substituting for actual educational equity.
I don’t see the real cost per student to the AP for administering the test or how giving students access to the test is going to ensure quality classes in schools.
Hint students are mostly not taking AP exams not because they can’t afford the exam – it is because of insufficient numbers of prepared students.
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-education-department-awards-38-states-dc-and-virgin-islands-284-million-grants-help-low-income-students-take-advanced-placement-tests
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The issue is: How money will it take to fund education? Just what does that mean? What aspects need to be funded (classrooms, teachers, special ed, the arts, PE, after school etc)? With a strapped state budget–where will the $100,000 come from and where will it go to? Will the money go toward education or the judicial system? Each special session costs $10,000/day and they have just gone through 3 special sessions. What right does the judicial branch have to demand another branch to carry out its edicts? The legislature did more than it ever has
to fund education and has plans to do more by 2018? Something will have to be cut to fund education further, at this time, what should it be..?
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Why does something have to be cut? How about making certain corporations , like Boeing and Microsoft, pay their fair share of taxes, or instituting a state income tax that’s fair?
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Coco Nutty, as you may know (not sure from your post), “fair” or not, Washington state HAS no state income tax.
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Great example of what happens when education is under a state controlled bureaucracy. Some parents who truly care about their child’s education don’t cast enough votes to raise taxes; other caring parents don’t vote for higher taxes because they don’t trust the bureaucracy to “do the right thing;” the state is torn between other concerns; and finally, the courts have their opinion – but why does this judge think he has the authority to define what education funding should be? Community based schools accountable to parents with equitable public funding is a great step forward.
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