Saturday, December 22, 2012

Editorial: Court right to hit lawmakers over education mandate | Editorials | The Seattle Times

Editorial: Court right to hit lawmakers over education mandate | Editorials | The Seattle Times:


Editorial: Court right to hit lawmakers over education mandate

The state Supreme Court is underwhelmed with the Legislature’s efforts so far to make good on the McCleary funding mandate. Rightly so.
STATE lawmakers must do more than bicker in task-force meetings to make progress on its court-ordered mandate to fully fund a 21st-century public-education system.
That should mean a robust system from early learning to higher education.
The state’s Joint Task Force on Education Funding has fixated more on revenue and less on important education goals and reforms. Its last meeting ended with unimpressive recommendations. Efforts to decouple revenue from accountability should cease.
The state Supreme Court is monitoring the Legislature’s progress on education funding under its year-old McCleary v. State ruling. Justices are underwhelmed with the progress so far, a point made fully in the court’s terse takedown of the Legislature filed Thursday as a court order.
The court’s landmark education-funding ruling