Download the full legislative memo here

Introduction – The McCleary decision’s definition problem

The state supreme court ruling in the 2012 McCleary case has placed Washington state on a path of uncertainty over spending increases for K-12 schools.  Today’s political court has doubled-down on the mistakes made by Judge Doran in the late 1970s.

Doran was the judge who demanded that state lawmakers enact a definition of “basic education,” which the legislature then drafted and passed into law.  Judge Doran required “basic education” to be funded by the state, and “enhancements to education” to be funded by local levies.  This created a word game in state education policy, because no one is ever sure which lessons taught in schools are “basic” and which are “enhancements.”  The students certainly don’t know, and the teachers often don’t know either.
    
In 2012, the McCleary judges compounded Doran’s error.

The way to correct this problem, created by the judiciary, is for the legislature to abolish the false and ambiguous distinction between “basic” and “enhanced” education in state law.  Up until 1978, no such distinction existed, and the idea hasn’t worked since then.

The 2017 Legislative Session provides the legislature and the governor the opportunity to correct the mistakes made by the judiciary.

 Download the full legislative memo here