Three more Pierce County school districts have agreed to join legal action aimed at forcing the state to better fund public education.
The Tacoma, University Place and Sumner school boards voted last week to join in what’s known as the McCleary case, named for the plaintiff family from Chimacum that successfully sued the state over public school funding issues.
“If we had reliable funding, we could accomplish so much more,” said Tacoma School Board member Kim Golding.
King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick rendered his McCleary decision in February 2010. The state has appealed, and arguments are scheduled for June 28 before the state Supreme Court.
So far, at least 151 school districts, representing about three-quarters of all students in the state, have joined in the lawsuit, which was filed with the support of a coalition called the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, or NEWS.
The network includes school districts, advocacy groups such as statewide and local teachers unions, the League of Women Voters and the Pierce County Black Collective.
Several South Sound school districts, including Clover Park, Federal Way, Peninsula and Puyallup, were already part of the group when the original court decision was made in 2010.
Erlick ruled then that the state had failed in its duty under the state constitution to make education its first priority. The constitution calls education the state’s “paramount duty” and says it must make “ample provision for the education of all children.”
Attorneys for the McCleary family and the network argued that the state has not done so. Erlick wrote in his decision that “state funding is not ample, it is not stable, and it is not dependable. Local school districts continue to rely on local levies and other nonstate resources to supplement state funding for a basic program of education.”
He said that recent state legislation addresses the problem but doesn’t resolve it.
The state responded with a legal brief filed with the Supreme Court. It points out what state attorneys describe as legal errors in the McCleary arguments. It urges the Supreme Court to reaffirm earlier court rulings on school funding and to allow the Legislature to decide how best to implement the constitutional mandate.
But educators and network members say that this year’s state funding cuts to education, approved by the Legislature last week, are proof that the system needs to change.
“It’s disheartening to find ourselves in an annual position of death by a thousand pinpricks,” says University Place Superintendent Patti Banks. She said the state’s history of cuts makes it “difficult to explain to our community and our staff, and it makes it difficult to have a stable education program.”
Like many school districts, University Place relies on local levy dollars to pay for services the state does not. Levy dollars make up about 22 percent of UP’s overall budget. Banks said they pay for many things, including basic compensation and health care costs for employees.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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