What isn't ample, stable or dependable?

Our education funding system, that's what.

The big non-surprise news today is the decision from King County Superior Court in the McCleary case. The plaintiffs in this case - parents, students, school districts, and others - sued the state saying we haven't lived up to our constitutional paramount duty of amply funding basic education.

Judge John Erlick agreed with the plaintiffs. The 103-page ruling lays out a lot of technical detail, but Erlick essentially ruled that the state is not providing ample or dependable funding, and that school districts are having to rely on local levies to cover the costs of basic education. He concedes that last year's HB 2261 is a step in the right direction but doesn't necessarily address the funding issue because it didn't come with funding.

So what does the ruling mean? Judge Erlick ruled that the state must figure out the full cost of basic education and establish how the state will pay for it with stable and dependable state sources. Discussions are in process about whether to appeal.

State Rep. Ross Hunter, who has worked doggedly on school funding issues for years, said in his statement today that the court is right and we shouldn't waste money appealing the decision.

State Rep. Pat Sullivan sponsored HB 2261 and is currently sponsor of HB 2776, a bill that lays out the second step of establishing new funding formulas and a timeline for fully paying for them. He also released a statement today saying the lawsuit is a "reminder that we cannot delay in fulfilling our constitutional obligation to the one million children in Washington's schools."

Other than requiring "real and measurable progress" towards the tasks of calculating the costs of basic education and coming up a way to pay for it, the court set no timeline for accomplishing those tasks. And regardless of whether this lawsuit goes into appeals or not, much of this work is already being looked at by the Quality Education Council, the group in charge of implementing HB 2261 and committed to having a new funding system in place by 2018.

UPDATE: Rep. Kathy Haigh, chair of the Education Appropriations Committee, also released a statement.