The just-enacted 2017-19 budget provides a record $21.9 billion to K-12 public schools, a $3.7 billion increase over the previous budget.  This is one of the largest increases in school funding in the history of the state.

Since the 2012 McCleary decision and including this latest budget, state lawmakers have now increased funding for K-12 schools from $13.54 to $21.9 billion, a 62% percent increase. Public spending on salaries and benefits for school employees will rise by over $1 billion, the largest category of spending increase, by far.  The majority of school employees are not classroom teachers.

Governor Inslee says the McCleary lawsuit is now resolved.   In signing the latest spending increase he said, “I am proud to sign a historic budget that fully funds our schools for the first time in more than 30 years,” Inslee said. “This budget, at long last, meets our constitutional obligations to fully fund basic education, and addresses the responsibilities we have under the McCleary decision to equitably fund our schools.”

On the downside, the budget does not include changes in the way education money is spent, or any of the core reforms that students need.

Earlier in the session the Senate passed a bill, SB 5607, that included several reforms that would help students.  The final budget bill, however, stripped out these constructive policy changes.  Here are some of the important reforms that were rejected by the House and the Governor:

?  A guaranteed state-funded minimum of $12,500 for every student in the state, ending the funding inequity between children living in property-rich and property-poor districts.

?  Ending discrimination in teacher hiring that requires public school applicants to have a special state-issued certificate, while private schools are allowed to hire any qualified applicant.

?  Ending discrimination in school funding against charter school families.  Currently the legislature denies local funding to charter public schools, meaning these families must pay school taxes but cannot receive any benefit for their children.

?  Speeding the process for firing teachers involved in child abuse or otherwise harming student performance.  Currently union rules make it difficult to dismiss abusive or ineffective school employees.

?  Confirming the legal principle that teachers, as public employees, are not allowed to close local schools through strikes.

?  Encouraging the creation of Innovative School Districts with autonomy and flexibility from restrictive union and central district rules.

With the new budget the legislature is pumping record-levels of public money into the school system, but lawmakers did little to empower parents or improve the way money is spent.  The Governor’s announcement that the huge spending increase meets the court ruling in the McCleary case solves a festering political dispute that has disturbed families and brought controversy to schools.

Long experience shows, however, that simply adding money to an unreformed system does not help kids.  Education spending in Washington is going up by 62 percent, but I expect the drop-out rate, the achievement gap and overall test scores to remain largely unchanged.