Dorn: Court Must Rule on McClearyQuickly

Dorn: Court Must Rule on McClearyQuickly

State Superintendent Randy Dorn filed a brief with the Supreme Court. Below is a statement on the brief.

OLYMPIA—AUGUST 30, 2016—On Monday I filed a brief in the McCleary v. Washington case. In July the state Supreme Court asked all parties in the case how much the major costs associated with basic education are funded by the state and how much by local districts.

Because my office receives spending reports from all of the state’s 295 school districts, I asked the Supreme Court if I could contribute. The Court agreed.

The last year for which we have complete data is 2014-15. Based on that year, spending on basic education staff was as follows:

* Per full-time equivalent employee

Spending on categorical programs and other basic education expenditures was as follows:

* In millions of dollars

What’s especially troubling is that, according to analysis done by my office, districts spent a total of $3 billion in 2014-15 from local levies and levy equalization. About 60 percent of that total – $1.8 billion – was needed to make up for the differences in salaries and additional staffing.

We have a grave teacher shortage in this state, and it’s not made any easier when the state doesn’t even allocate the full salary for a teacher, administrator or classified employee.

The Court asked for the information because it is considering whether to lift the $100,000-a-day fine on the Legislature. I strongly urge the Court not to do so. In fact, in June I urge the Court to increase the severity of the sanctions. The Legislature has had more than four years to fully fund basic education. But in 2014-15, they were clearly short. Legislators must understand that that money translates into children in some parts of the state not getting the education services they need and deserve.

Just as important, I also strongly urge the court to rule on this matter quickly, before election day. The two gubernatorial candidates recently held their first debate and failed to substantively discuss education funding.

As I end my eight years in office, I am becoming more discouraged by the lack of momentum I’m seeing in funding. Using a rough analogy, to this point the Court has been the “nice” parent, begging and pleading for the child to clean his room. It’s time for the Court to stop being nice and demand action. Otherwise, the room will get messier and messier.