Washington Supreme Court Orders Sanctions in McCleary Education Case

Session may be over, but the intrigue around education funding has picked up once again. The Washington Supreme Court has thrown down the gavel and issued sanctions in the McCleary case. The sanctions, which are $100,000 per day, go into effect immediately as the State has not prepared a plan for how it will meet its constitutional duty to fully fund education by 2018. Chief Justice Barbara Madsen said:

“As this Court has said previously, while we appreciate the scope of the task at hand and have deferred to the legislature’s chosen plan for fully funding basic education, it remains our constitutional obligation to uphold article IX, section 1. We believe every person in Washington understands that providing for education is the State’s paramount duty under the state constitution, and without a comprehensive education plan, the state is not on target to meet its constitutional obligation by the deadline it set for the 2017–18 school year.”

To learn more about the Court’s ruling and the sanctions, read the Court’s entire press release (PDF).