Education expert warns Washington state’s budget controversy isn’t over

When Erin Jones saw Governor Jay Inslee’s proposed budget she made a prediction — the budget process was going to be lengthy.

In fact, she thought if any budget was going to pass, it would happen at the 11th hour. That’s exactly what happened as Washington lawmakers narrowly avoided a government shutdown during a third special session.

“His budget was so big D, big Democrat, that the Republicans would not be able to (work with) his budget,” Jones told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross. “He had already put himself out there very clearly, this is a Democratic budget. And I know with the Senate being Republican that there’s way too much space between the two.”

RELATED: Erin Jones says Inslee’s budget is ‘dead on arrival’

Jones is a former candidate for state superintendent of public instruction and an education consultant. She has a new prediction: The Supreme Court isn’t going to like the budget that was passed in the nick of time. More specifically, she feels that the Legislature was strategic. It passed a budget that would keep the state running, but would place the controversial decision about education funding on the steps of the Supreme Court.

“I feel like that played itself out last week,” Jones said.

State lawmakers were tasked with adequately funding K-12 education after a landmark Supreme Court decision — the Legislature was basically ordered to do it. For years, Republicans and Democrats in Olympia have wrestled with how to accomplish it. The latest budget adds $7.3 billion to fund public education, paid for through a property tax. But Jones says it’s not that straightforward.

“What they’ve done is take money that was already in the system, the levies that are typically used in districts — it’s a swap,” Jones said. “That money was already out there, it’s not new revenue. I think a lot of Democrats are going to say, ‘We didn’t create any new revenue, we’re taking money that districts had already raised with levies and are now calling it ‘state money.’”

“In our Constitution, it says the paramount duty is to amply fund education,” she said. “But also, there is a clause that says it has to be a sustainable source of revenue. And I don’t think the source of revenue is regular and sustainable. I worry we are relying on levies, which are not sustainable, they are not predictable … my concern is that (the Supreme Court) will look at the funding source and say it’s not predictable enough.”

Jones said she doesn’t ultimately know how the Supreme Court will react to the new budget. The last time it fined the Legislature for not doing a good enough job of funding education. Beyond the court, Jones said there are still issues waiting to be addressed in Washington classrooms.

“I don’t think money is always the answer, but how we spend our money is really important,” Jones said. “Are we making sure we are training up teachers well? That’s something we haven’t had a conversation about. Are teachers prepared to teach? Are we preparing teachers for 2017 or are we preparing them for 1995?”

“They need to be able to use technology, they need to be able to navigate social media,” she said. “Not every kid is going to become a STEM kid, but they need to at least be exposed to that.”

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