“Fair School Funding” Lawsuit
History of Washington School Funding
The roots of school funding inequities are long and convoluted. The state’s system for funding schools was first declared unconstitutional in 1977. This ruling was upheld by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1978. The state legislature responded by passing the Basic Education Act in 1977. This act calls for the state to distribute the majority of basic education money to school districts based on three formulas: one for certificated instructional staff (e.g., teachers), one for certificated administrators (e.g., principals and superintendents), and one for classified employees (e.g., custodians and secretaries).
Under this formula, the number of staff personnel funded by the state was basically the same for all school districts, but the salaries that the state funded was based on the amount each school district paid for salaries in the 1976-77 school year. So each school district is funded at a different average salary depending on what that district had reported in that school year.
Between 1977 and 1987, the state legislature worked at narrowing the differences between the funding levels of different school districts. Since 1987, however, the state has abandoned the effort to equalize funding of school districts. Nearly twenty years of inaction has left huge differences in the funding of school districts across the state.