During the 2017 legislative session, we passed $1.8 billion in additional dollars toward our goal to fully fund education by the 2019-20 school year. However, in the fall, the state Supreme Court ruled in the McCleary case that while our framework is sufficient to meet the state’s obligation to basic education, it still falls short because it doesn’t fully fund the increased school teacher and staff salaries by the 2018 deadline.
Gov. Inslee’s budget released in December proposes an additional, one-time investment of $950 million in the 2018–19 school year to increase staff salaries and fully fund basic education by Sept. 1, 2018, in compliance with the Court’s ruling. The governor’s budget would pay for this one-time investment using revenue from the “Rainy Day Fund,” which would then be replaced with revenue from a new proposed carbon pollution tax.
While we wait for the governor to release the details on that tax proposal later this month, I’d like to hear your thoughts:
