What: Resolution urging state Legislature to address K-12 funding.
Who: Evergreen Public Schools board.
When: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Where: Administrative Service Center Evergreen Room, 13501 N.E. 28th St.
Read the McCleary decision
Washington State School Directors Association
At its Tuesday board meeting, Evergreen Public Schools will bring a resolution urging the Washington State Legislature to address K-12 funding.
“The (Washington State School Directors’ Association) is urging all school districts to pass this resolution, which is just a reminder of the McCleary decision,” said Todd Yuzuriha, board president of Evergreen Public Schools. “The more common ground we find as a region, the bigger voice we’ll have at a state level. We want to be able to send a message to the Legislature to remember schools.”
The resolution was first presented by the WSSDA in Olympia and was written to show support for the McCleary decision.
The resolution “has taken off quickly,” said Michael Wilson, communications director at WSSDA, who said about 40 school boards around the state have passed the resolution so far.
“Sustainable K-12 funding is the biggest educational priority for our members and schools in this state,” Wilson said. “There’s an urgency to get something done. Something sustainable and efficient to fund basic education. That translates to supporting the McCleary decision, and to ask the Legislature to do something about it.”
In what’s become known as the McCleary decision, the state Supreme Court determined in the McCleary vs. State of Washington opinion issued January 5, 2012, that the state is violating its constitutional obligation to amply fund K-12 education as directed in the Washington State Constitution, Article IX, Section 1: “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.”
Susan Parrish: 360-735-4515; http://twitter.com/Col_Schools; susan.parrish@columbian.com
