A group of school districts and pro-education groups headed by Chimacum School District Superintendent Mike Blair filed its previously announced lawsuit Thursday against the state in King County Superior Court.
“The main concern is stability,” Blair said earlier this week.
“When times are good, we get funding. When times are bad our funding gets eroded.”
The organization Blair heads, Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, wants a judge to declare that the state has failed to live up to the constitution, which defines education as the state’s paramount duty.
James Kelly, president of the Seattle Urban League, a member of the network, said, “We’re reminding everyone the constitution is clear. It doesn’t say ‘a’ paramount duty. It says ‘the.'”
The group of 12 school districts and education associations is joined in the lawsuit by the Washington Education Association – the largest teachers’ union in the state – and the League of Women’s Voters as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
A Chimacum husband and wife, Matt and Stephanie McCleary, and their two children also are plaintiffs.
According to the lawsuit, Stephanie McCleary was 13 years old when the state Supreme Court issued a 1978 decision requiring the state to obey its constitutional mandate to amply fund public education for all the state’s children.
Her daughter is now 13 years old.
An entire generation has passed, and the state still has not complied with that ruling, according to the lawsuit.
Blair has said the suit asks a judge to clearly define “basic education,” rule on whether the state lawmakers have fulfilled their constitutional duty and order the state to determine the complete cost of providing education and fully fund it.
State schools superintendent Terry Bergeson said Thursday she couldn’t comment on the lawsuit because she hadn’t yet seen it.
Gov. Chris Gregoire did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the lawsuit.
