An historic victory for Washington students

 

NEWS, together with the McCleary and Venema families on whose behalf the lawsuit was filed, declared the ruling an historic and monumental victory for public school students and citizens of Washington.

 

As NEWS lead attorney Tom Ahearne summarized: “The highest Court in our State has clearly told our Legislature, once and for all, that the State is violating its Constitutional duty to the people of Washington - and has declared that the Court will retain jurisdiction to enforce its ruling rather than sit on the sidelines and 'hope' that the Legislature someday complies."

 

The Supreme Court upheld a 2010 decision by King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick, declaring that the State must amply fund education first before any other State programs or operations. In addition, the Supreme Court prohibited the Legislature from eliminating or cutting funding for reasons of unrelated to educational policy - in other words, financial expediency cannot be used as an excuse to further cut education.  The ruling also rejected the State’s contention that federal funds and local levies should be counted toward meeting the State’s constitutional mandate.

 

“The Supreme Court has unequivocally told the Legislature that our State Constitution leaves it no choice but to fully and amply fund public education,” Ahearne said. “The only question now is whether our legislators will voluntarily obey the oath they took to our Constitution now, or be forced to do so by the courts later."