Despite Deadline, Still No Education Funding Plan From Washington State Legislators

The state Supreme Court will not get the K-12 education funding plan it demanded from the state Legislature by the end of April.

The court called for the plan in January after finding that state lawmakers had not made enough progress toward amply funding basic education as required by the state Constitution.

Instead, a bipartisan legislative subcommittee on Tuesday approved a report to the court that says the Legislature did not pass such a plan, and the committee lacks the authority to propose its own plan.

Democratic Senator David Frockt of Seattle sits on the subcommittee. He said he doesn’t know how the court will respond to the report.

“The biggest thing that did not happen is the Legislature did not pass a plan. And we should have," Frockt said. "I would have voted for a plan. But I’m one of 147 members.”

In their report, lawmakers pointed to the numerous education funding bills that were considered in the latest session as proof that “significant work is occurring” in Olympia toward K-12 funding.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn issued a statement lambasting the 58-page legislative report as saying “very little.” And he said the report is “far from complete.”

The subcommittee told the court that it considers next year the most critical year for the Legislature to meet the 2018 deadline set by the Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary decision on education funding.