Washington Business Fall 2018 | Legislative Review & Vote Record | Seite 14

2018 legislative review
Lawmakers repeated Inslee’s assertion in an
April report to the court outlining how the state
is now in compliance with the entirety of the
McCleary ruling.
education funding is more than half
the state budget
Since the 2012 ruling, lawmakers have responded
in a big way.
State spending for elementary and secondary
education has risen from $13.4 billion in the
2011-13 biennium to $22.8 billion in the current
$43.7 billion two-year budget and is projected to
reach $26.7 billion in the 2019-21 state operating
budget.
“We are investing not only in the well-being
of us, the current generation, and the well-being
Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, chairs the Senate Ways & Means Committee,
of our communities, but we’re investing in the
and is the lead Senate budget writer.
future of the younger generations,” said Sen.
Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, and the
bargain locally for 15 percent pay increases for all certificated
Senate’s chief budget writer.
staff, the bulk of which are classroom teachers, and 37 percent
Amy Anderson, AWB government affairs director for raises for classified staff.
education issues, agrees that the Legislature fulfilled the 2012 In a video on the WEA’s website, the group’s president, Kim
McCleary mandates this year.
Mead, says of the new budget investments: “Now we have
“We’ve seen historic investments in our state’s education the opportunity to be able to come together and negotiate
system over the past six years, including funding educator substantial raises in salary and pay for all our members.”
salaries and the critical needs of our schools and students,” Some lawmakers aren’t sure what to make of the WEA’s
Anderson said. “The next step is to ensure we’re investing announcement.
in programs like career and technical education that show “We didn’t come out of the session saying everybody gets a
students every career pathway as a way to fill the workforce raise,” said Rolfes of the WEA’s announcement. “We said every
pipeline of today and into the future.”
district will get more state money.”
teacher salaries
what’s next
The most controversial move during the 2018 session was not The final report from the Legislature’s Joint Select Committee
the actual allocation of additional state funding to pay the full on Article IX Litigation was submitted to the court in April.
cost of teacher salaries, but rather the unusual budget maneuver It explains how the state is fully funding the program of basic
lawmakers used to do it.
education, putting an end to the McCleary case and the court’s
In short, budget writers took $970 million in unexpected oversight of the state education budget.
tax collections and used the money to pay for full state
support of teacher salary increases. Sounds easy enough,
but voters passed a constitutional amendment requiring that
“extraordinary” tax collections must be saved in the state’s
protected rainy-day fund, which can only be accessed with
a supermajority vote in both chambers of the Legislature.
With that nearly $1 billion infusion, the powerful
Washington Education Association (WEA) announced that
— Gov. Jay Inslee
educators in all 322 school districts plan to collectively
“We believe that by satisfying the McCleary
decision we satisfied a higher purpose, which
is our moral responsibility to our kids and our
grandchildren. And I feel good about that.”
12 association of washington business