The Seattle Papers on School Funding

The Seattle Times:

Washington's 296 school districts are not adequately supported by the state. Strapped districts cobble together local resources such as levies to create a funding level that is neither stable nor enough.

The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, is not overreaching. It requests a court order requiring the state to affirm its constitutional obligation, cost it out and pay it.

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We don't like budgeting by lawsuit. But the sorry state of education funding cries out for the force of law to fix it.

The Seattle P-I:

School districts and a host of supporters have finally gone to court with a long-obvious problem. The state is defying its own constitution by refusing to fund public education at anywhere close to levels adequate to meet the needs of all students.

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While it is regrettable that public dollars will need to be spent on lawyers, experts and depositions, it is more important that words in our state constitution have real meaning. The state can't win this suit. One way to limit legal expenses would be to negotiate a settlement that honors the words and intentions of the state's founders.

There is a certain bitter irony to the notion that taxpayer dollars (vis-a-vis the schools) will be used to pay the lawyers to sue the state for more taxpayer dollars, which will defend itself by hiring lawyers with taxpayer dollars. It's almost enough to make me vote Rossi in 2008.