The state legislature is now facing the budget consequences of the COVID-19 economic shutdown. The state revenue forecast shows tax receipts are down by $4.5 billion for the remainder of this biennium, from July 2020 to July 2021, below what lawmakers predicted. This drop in expected future tax revenue reflects the pain Washingtonians have suffered from the pandemic. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Businesses have closed. People who work in the private sector are worrying about their next paychecks.  

Lawmakers may still meet to balance the state’s $52.5 billion budget. Spending on K-12 schools in the current budget is $27.3 billion, which is 52 percent of the budget. The WEA union, which earlier had said “we are all in this together,” is now saying “don’t touch spending that benefits us.” 

The WEA union has put out this message:

“WEA members know better than most that basic education funding is protected by our state Constitution, as affirmed by the McCleary lawsuit which we championed, and can’t be cut for economic reasons.” 

Is it true that the education budget is “constitutionally protected”?  No, it’s not.

The union is distorting the McCleary state supreme court ruling by cherry-picking some of the language from the decision.  

 The WEA union selectively quotes this:

“...the legislature may not eliminate an offering from the basic education program for reasons unrelated to educational policy, such as fiscal crisis or mere expediency.” 

Thus the legislature can change the basic education program to improve outcomes for children. The McCleary decision says the legislature has broad discretion over education spending, that education spending is “not set in constitutional stone” and that the legislature has an obligation “to review the basic education program as the needs of students and the demands of society evolve.”  The WEA wants to pretend the “McCleary court” didn’t say this.

The legislature has many reasons to makes changes in the K-12 school budget.  Student test scores are flat and declining. One in three minority students fails to graduate from high school. Washington’s academic achievement gap between minority and white students is growing. Washington has 118 state-identified schools that are failing to educate some 44,000 students. These schools have a disproportionate negative impact on children of color.  

Savings in the K-12 school budget are possible without eliminating any programs for students.  The K-12 budget includes an automatic 1.6 percent pay increase for school employees. It also includes $329 million in school employee benefit increases.  Without touching any education programs for students, lawmakers can find savings in excess of $1 billion in the current school budget. 

In other words, the legislature can protect education programs for students and help balance the budget by cancelling planned pay and benefit increases for school employees.    

School districts do not lack for money. The 2012 McCleary decision led to a doubling of state spending on the schools in the last eight years, from $13.5 billion in 2013 to $27.3 billion. Total per-student spending has grown from under $10,000 to $15,800, and average teacher pay grew from around $65,000 to $83,000 a year.

School employees have been protected from the economic effects of COVID-19. They have kept their jobs through this health crisis, and collected their pay and benefits.  They have kept their jobs while over a million Washington residents have been put out of work.

In sympathy with these working families, a little shared sacrifice by the WEA union would go a long way towards balancing the state budget. 

Instead the union is demanding even higher taxes, and more sacrifice from the hardworking people of Washington state. The union should open up a little to the suffering being experienced by others. 

The people of Washington state have been generous to the public schools. Now, in this time of crisis, the union should be prepared to give back to the community, by showing what they are willing to contribute toward balancing the state budget.