Get serious about fixing state education funding
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
The state’s fiscal crisis gives lawmakers a pass on many otherwise worthwhile proposals this year, but reform of the archaic way Washington pays for K-12 education isn’t one of them.
State coffers need not be flush for the Legislature to officially admit that the state’s definition of basic education and the complex formula it uses to dole out money to school districts are woefully out of date.
Task force after task force has delivered that message to legislators. Electing not to listen – or to acknowledge the problem but punt on solutions – only puts off the inevitable.
Lawmakers can act now of their own accord, or wait for a court to rule that the state is failing its constitutional obligation to make education its top priority, or to provide equitable funding among districts. Such rulings may not be far off, with a couple of lawsuits already in the pipeline.
Exhibit A for at least one of them is bound to be the report from the Legislature’s very own Basic Education Finance Task Force. It reads as an indictment of the current system’s inability to adequately and fairly provide the money needed to educate students for a 21st century world.
That report was to be the blueprint for legislation this session, but education reformers overestimated the Legislature’s stomach for sweeping change, even when there is no immediate bill attached.
In recognition of the state’s $9 billion budget shortfall, sponsors proposed delaying an overhaul of education funding to 2011 and then phasing it in slowly over six years. But they also tied a big increase in education funding to measures that might actually ensure those dollars were spent wisely – things like merit pay for teachers and state intervention in failing schools.
A few with a vested interest in the status quo – mainly the teachers union – howled, and lawmakers caved. So backers, in the words of one task force member, sliced up the apple into little pieces and started feeding it to the Legislature in little bites.
The House turned out to have a bigger appetite for reform than the Senate, although both chambers’ approaches have something to recommend them.
The Senate bill redefines basic education more narrowly – in a way the state is more likely to be able to afford in the short term. But it doesn’t call for stronger graduation requirements to ensure that high school students have the fundamental skills they need for adulthood.
The House bill – which nails down more details rather than leave them to chance – has those requirements, but also attempts to dedicate a set portion of future state revenue growth to education. While revamping K-12 education is sure to cost more money, lawmakers would do better to budget as needed rather than establish some arbitrary calculation.
Compromise between the chambers has been elusive, and Gov. Chris Gregoire’s decision late last week to offer her two cents at the 11th hour only complicates matters.
At this point, lawmakers – who have a little something called the state budget to also figure out – might be tempted to cry uncle. Delaying might even buy them cover in the form of a state Supreme Court ruling that forces their hand.
But what a sorry spectacle it would be if the Legislature waited for the bench to declare what lawmakers have known for years: That the way the state supports schools is failing students, and it cannot stand.
