After a four-day break, state lawmakers were scheduled to resume work today to finish what they couldn’t in the regular session to show adequate progress to fully fund education, agree to a package of transportation projects and find agreement to adopt the operating and capital budgets for the next two years.
On their behalf, the state Attorney General asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to give the Legislature more time to complete their work on education before the justices meted out contempt of court sanctions if it fails to deliver a plan to fully fund education, a finding that stems from the court’s ruling in the 2012 McCleary case. A brief filed by the state said it would update the court about the agreement the Legislature reaches at the conclusion of the current 30-day special session.
But state Schools Superintendent Randy Dorn isn’t certain the court will be satisfied by the Legislature’s progress even with a budget agreement, The Olympia reported Monday.
The House and Senate have agreed generally on the funding for school materials and supplies, all-day kindergarten and a reduction in class sizes to 17 students for kindergarten to third-grade by the 2017-18 school year. And lawmakers can point to three proposals to show how it might reform school levies so that the state takes responsibility for paying teachers.
Even with that, Dorn said, “we are no closer to full state funding of our schools now than we were six months ago.”
Of course the Supreme Court will hang fire for another 30 days. It showed patience last year when it found the state and its lawmakers in contempt of court but suspended any sanctions until after this year’s legislative session.
But the Supreme Court ought to hold the Legislature to a high standard. Showing progress to the court should require lawmakers to demonstrate a significant understanding as to what full funding will cost, not just for the next biennium but for years ahead; how that revenue can be secured; what levy reforms might look like; and how the state will work with teachers unions to shift bargaining for their pay and benefits to a state level.
Paired with the Supreme Court’s threat of penalties, maybe what is needed is an enticement. And the state’s Legislative Ethics Board hit on a possibility last week.
The ethics board, which includes four lawmakers, four citizens and a judge, determined last week that legislators will be allowed to accept free admission to the upcoming U.S. Open golf tournament to be played at Chambers Bay in University Place, even though the $110 ticket exceeds the $50 gift limit lawmakers are allowed to accept. The ethics board will permit the exception if lawmakers make their visit official business by touring the golf course with Pierce County officials for two to three hours prior to the start of play. It’s not unlike the deal some of us make for a free weekend’s stay if we agree to listen to a three-hour pitch for a time-share condominium.
There’s one hitch, however; lawmakers will have to finish their work before tee-time on June 15.
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