Edmonds schools superintendent urges lawmakers to fully fund K-12 education
Edmonds School District Superintendent Nick Brossoit, president of the 420-member Network for Education in Washington Schools (NEWS) has sent a letter to every Washington legislator telling them to abide by the order of the Washington State Supreme Court and make real progress on K-12 education funding.
The letter begins: “When you took your oath of office, you swore to uphold our State Constitution. As a Washington legislator, you are a role model for our children as someone who not only creates laws, but abides by them. The highest court in our state has now ordered you to abide by the Constitution and fully fund K-12 public education by 2018.
NEWS is a coalition of school districts, teachers, parents and education groups that sued the state for not living up to the state’s Constitutional mandate to fully fund basic education. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled in the now-famous McCleary case in January 2012 that the Legislature must “amply” fund K-12 education and warned every legislator that “ample” means “considerably more than just adequate.”
The 420 Network ! That’s what he wants the funds for? Confusing
The 420 Network is made up of a number of entities who are working to get more funding for schools not their network. Look at the following site to learn more about them. http://waschoolexcellence.org/
When you go to the site look on the links that discuss what the court may do if the legislators do not comply with the court order. To not comply should bring consequences. Some of the potential consequences are pretty interesting.
The court found that it is the States obligation to fund education and we are not doing so. You can read the court case at the following link.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/843627.opn.pdf
The following numbers and percentages are a bit outdated but come from a discussion I had with Randy Dorn a couple of years ago. He is the State Supt of Schools.
Funding for schools then was about $7B and somewhere around the mid 40′s of the budget. Recall it was around 45-46%. At that time the short fall to fund basic education was about $2B. I recall a presentation not to long ago that said State funding for education is now a lower percentage of the budget and that the short fall has grown to near $3-4B. These numbers could be updated for better accuracy but the bottom line is we are way below what the funding levels outlined in the court order.
The legislature has a problem and at this point have not passed any legislation to comply with the court order. This should be interesting to see what the legislature does and to see how the court reacts to their effort.