The Washington Supreme Court is holding the Legislature in contempt for failing to submit a plan detailing how the state will pay for public schools through 2018.
However, the court stopped short of imposing sanctions. It is giving the Legislature the “opportunity to purge the contempt” if lawmakers submit an education funding plan by the end of the 2015 session.
“If the contempt is not purged by adjournment of the 2015 legislature, the court will reconvene and impose sanctions or other remedial measures,” Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote in the unanimous order released Thursday.
The Supreme Court ruled in the 2012 McCleary decision that Washington state was not meeting its constitutional duty to fund K-12 education. The court has since demanded regular updates from the Legislature, including an order asking lawmakers to submit a plan in April explaining how the state will pay for basic education.
The Legislature failed to submit that plan, spurring a contempt hearing last week in which lawyers for the state asked for more time.
“The state assured the court that a contempt order is not necessary to get the legislature’s attention, that school funding is the number one issue on the legislature’s agenda, and that the 2015 session will provide the best opportunity to take meaningful action on the matter,” Madsen wrote.
“The court has no doubt that it already has the legislature’s ‘attention.’ But that is not the purpose of a contempt order. Rather, contempt is the means by which a court enforces compliance with its lawful orders when they are not followed,” the court said.
The order will be posted on the court’s website.