Playing Chicken with the Supreme Court

Apparently that's the consideration of some in the Legislature.  Publicola is reporting that Senator Steve Litzow told a group of regional leaders (in a closed door meeting a couple of weeks ago) that after the election, the Legislature would convene for a special session...for transportation.  (It's a gas tax.)

Now either the Governor would have to convene this or the Legislature would have to get a 2/3rds vote in both houses to have a special session.

So here's the question (bold mine).

From Publicola:

And this brings us to the "One Question" we've got for Litzow: Is he trying to get the Washington State Supreme Court—which is already holding him (along with the entire legislature) in contempt for failing to come up with a plan to fully fund K-12 education—to throw him in jail now? The legislature needs to come up with about $5 billion extra for K-12 education. The Court would certainly be stunned—after being told by the state's attorney at the September's contempt hearing (the state lost, obviously) that school funding was the #1 priority and was "on every legislator's lips" —to then see legislators come up with $12 billion for transportation and not education. 

And second question, actually: How would that square with Litzow's caucus' mantra to "fund education first?"

Another question: what will the Legislature do if I-1351 passes AND they have McCleary on their plates?  

Comments

Anonymous said…
Legislature passed Senate Bill 5904 expanding and requiring Washington State's preschool program (ECEAP) to serve all eligible children in 2018-2019 school year. Where is all the funding or capacity going to come from for now possibly pre-12.

http://www.del.wa.gov/publications/research/docs/ECEAP_expansion_plan.pdf

PSP
10/16/14, 12:14 PM
Patrick said…
How much of I-1351 and McCleary overlap? If 1351 passes and the Legislature funds it, how much of McCleary would remain to be funded?
10/16/14, 3:02 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Patrick, I think 1351 is about $1B each year for three years and McCleary still needs to be about $6B by 2019.

But, inherent in the idea of basic funding and fully-funding is class size so I think the two overlap.
10/16/14, 3:47 PM
Anonymous said…
Ah, the hypocritical Steve Litzow, who accuses teachers of putting their interests before the needs of kids when it comes to NCLB and the waivers, yet doesn't see that as a legislator trying to skip out on the state's paramount duty to fully K-12, he truly is putting his interests (like Boeing) before the needs of kids.
Hope he's replaced in the next election.

CT
10/16/14, 8:28 PM
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