Now THAT'S What the Court Should Do about McCleary
Kudos to Peter Callaghan at the News Tribune for his column on what the Supreme Court should do to nudge the Legislature along to enact McCleary. (If you read the column, you'll see I'm being sarcastic about "nudge.")
Out the gate:
“Do we look stupid? We may have faults individually and collectively, but we’re not stupid. We ruled unanimously in January 2012 that the state is in violation of the rights of its children to an amply funded education. We pointed out the words — again — in the state constitution that say education is the state’s ‘paramount duty.’
No more whining:
Rather than listen to you complain about this court’s order, let us remind you how accommodating we’ve been. We let you decide how to define basic education. We let you determine how much all that costs. We let you create the funding formulas and the timelines. And we gave you six years to do it!
Get it done:
“What follows is what we call a ‘court order.’ That means it isn’t subject to debate or interpretation or you all sitting around over beers contemplating the meaning of life. It just means you do it, OK?
“Before the end of 2014, you are ordered to convene in special session and fix the problem. If it helps motivate you, pretend this is Boeing or the Mariners asking. You can even wear ball caps.
“You will add funding that gets the state two-thirds toward the totals that you – not us – came up with for basic education. You will then present a specific plan on how to find the final one-third by 2018.
Out the gate:
“Do we look stupid? We may have faults individually and collectively, but we’re not stupid. We ruled unanimously in January 2012 that the state is in violation of the rights of its children to an amply funded education. We pointed out the words — again — in the state constitution that say education is the state’s ‘paramount duty.’
No more whining:
Rather than listen to you complain about this court’s order, let us remind you how accommodating we’ve been. We let you decide how to define basic education. We let you determine how much all that costs. We let you create the funding formulas and the timelines. And we gave you six years to do it!
Get it done:
“What follows is what we call a ‘court order.’ That means it isn’t subject to debate or interpretation or you all sitting around over beers contemplating the meaning of life. It just means you do it, OK?
“Before the end of 2014, you are ordered to convene in special session and fix the problem. If it helps motivate you, pretend this is Boeing or the Mariners asking. You can even wear ball caps.
“You will add funding that gets the state two-thirds toward the totals that you – not us – came up with for basic education. You will then present a specific plan on how to find the final one-third by 2018.
Comments
The legislature can ignore the judicial in this regard (nonacquiescence) . In fact we have seen this in the past where a sitting president ignored the Supreme Court (Worcester v. Georgia).
--Separate Branches
If Inslee wanted to get something done, he'd call a special session in mid-September. Lawmakers can't raise money during the legislative session, so they'd get changes passed right quick! This would work for both transportation and education.
How come Inslee gave away $8billion in taxes to Boeing?
Seems that would buy a few pencils and other stuff.
-districtWatcher