State high court upholds school funding formula

It looks like a big win for the state this morning in a legal challenge to how it allocates money to publc schools.

On a 9-0 vote, the state Supreme Court ruled the state's formulas for distributing dollars for pay of teachers, staff and administrators is constitutional.

Here's the decision in Federal Way School District No. 210 v. State of Washington

Justice James Johnson authored the opinion which concludes:

The legislature's use of the staff unit allocation system to fund education with differing salary allocations to school districts with historically disparate average salaries does not violate article IX, section 2, although there remains a slight gap between the highest and lowest salary funding statewide.

There is no showing that the legislature's funding allocations, including those for Federal Way School District, do not constitute "ample provision for the education of all children" as required under article IX, section 1. The legislature has acted well within its constitutional authority and its duty to make ample provision for the education of children and to provide for a general and uniform system of education under article IX. The individual respondents' claims do not meet requirements for justiciability and should be dismissed.