Washington State Supreme Court issued ruling on McCleary v. State of Washington

In a decision that is no surprise to Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City and author of the 2006 Minority Report to the governor’s Washington Learns task force report, the state Supreme Court put forward a 85-page ruling on the education funding case McCleary v. State of Washington. After the ruling, Anderson issued the following statement:

“I have been advocating for several years now that the state should fund education first in the budget. This court ruling goes right to the heart of the matter: If we do not fund education first, it becomes a political football. This is evident in the governor’s current budget proposal in which she cuts education then comes out telling taxpayers they can only ‘buy back’ her education funding cuts if they approve a half billion dollar tax hike. This approach is clearly emotional extortion to hold our children’s future hostage so other tough decisions don’t have to be made. When times are so tough and so many personal sacrifices are being made, it’s offensive to suggest such an alternative.

“Why don’t we pay our education tab first, then look at funding levels of other programs? We can no longer put education in the wash with every other non-essential and non-constitutionally mandated program. We should fund it first, and if taxpayers want to increase their taxes to ‘buy back’ other state spending and programs, then so be it.

“Education is the cornerstone of our economic engine and our children’s future prosperity. Shortcutting it through evasive and misleading budgeting decisions will not only serve to further erode our state’s future economic base, but undercut our students, who are the human capital our state needs if we want to be truly competitive in the global economy.”

The court ruling can be read here.

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For more information, contact Bobbi Cussins, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7252

Tagged as: glenn-anderson, education, budget-and-taxes