Friday, September 5, 2014

Washington Supreme Court Turns Up Heat on State Legislature in School Funding Case

In 2012, the Washington Supreme Court held that the state was failing in its constitutional duty to make ample provision for education.  It gave the state until 2018 to fix the problem.  Such a long time line did not portend well when it was issued, as lawmakers tend to drag their feet unless pushed on these issues.  Due to the state's failure to make significant progress over the past two years, the plaintiffs asked the court to hold the state in contempt and the court is waking up to general realities.  In a hearing before the court on Wednesday, several members of the court seemed prepared to hold the state in contempt if it does not act quickly to pass new funding legislation in its upcoming legislative session.  One justice went so far as to suggest the court should go ahead and hold the state in contempt now, remarking of the state's failure to act over the past two years: "Why should we think that you're going to do something different?"  Unfortunately, it has taken standoffs and this level of aggressiveness by plaintiffs and courts to spur reform in several other states in the past.  For instance, in Arizona, the state was held in contempt for about a month with enormous fines each day before it acted to address inadequate funding for English Language Learners.  Signally its seriousness through oral argument may be a good way of getting the state to act without formally escalating the problem.

More on the oral argument and case here.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/education_law/2014/09/washington-supreme-court-turns-up-heat-on-state-legislature-in-school-funding-case.html

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