Washington State's Justices and Lawmakers Feud Over School Funding

A school funding fight in Washington State has morphed into a constitutional showdown that has the state’s highest court threatening to hold the legislature in contempt. “There’s a deep concern about a constitutional crisis, in the fact that this would be the first time that the Supreme Court will have intervened in this manner in this state,” says Washington House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, a Democrat.

The conflict stems from a lawsuit filed in 2007 by school districts, teacher unions, and public school parents who argued that Washington State was violating its constitution by failing to adequately fund public education. Plaintiff Stephanie McCleary claimed her daughter had attended classes without textbooks; plaintiff Patty Venema said the main building at her kids’ middle school housed 700 to 800 students but only five girls’ bathroom stalls. The plaintiffs were armed with a clause from the constitution: “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children” in Washington.