IZUMI HANSEN and

JUSTIN BURNETT

South Whidbey Record

A much discussed basic education bill was approved by the state Legislature this week, and is now awaiting the governor’s signature.

The legislation, SB 6195, was OK’d Thursday in the House and Tuesday in the Senate. Boiled down, it creates a special task force that will recommend action on paying teacher salaries while also requiring the legislature to reduce local school district’s reliance on levy funding by the end of the 2017 session.

Though some have hailed it a bipartisan success and a step toward to meeting the mandates of the McCleary decision, many feel the bill didn’t go far enough and does nothing more than create a plan for a plan.

Rocco Gianni, a South Whidbey School District director and the board’s legislative liaison, said the bill is a step forward but expressed frustration that the district will again have to wait to learn how the state will fully fund education.

“It’s getting old, it really is, because it leaves us in the lurch,” Gianni said.

South Whidbey relies heavily on levy funding with about 25 percent making up the general fund budget — about $4 million of the $16 million pot. The bill puts a deadline on reducing or stopping that funding but doesn’t identify who it will be replaced, he said.

If approved by the governor, it will be more important than ever for the state to make sure a permanent funding solution is found. Lawmakers have to step up and make the hard decisions, he said.

“Sometimes it takes courage to do the right thing and they [the Legislature] need to do the right thing for the kids,” Gianni said.

The 2012 Washington State Supreme Court McCleary decision determined the state was not fully funding basic education, and that included teacher pay. It also determined that using levy funding is unconstitutional — it’s the state’s job to cough up adequate funding, not school districts. The state is under a contempt order and a fine of $100,000 a day since August 13 for failing to produce plans to fully fund basic education.

SB 6195 passed 66-31 in the House. One member, Rep. David Sawyer, D-Parkland, was excused from the vote. HB 2366 passed 64-34 in the House in January.

On Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee said, “We all know the heavy lifting that will need to be done in the session of 2017 is now set up to be done.”

Following the vote, on Twitter, he thanked the Legislature “for doing right by our students.”

State Schools Superintendent Randy Dorn has opposed both bills throughout the legislative process. He was not available for comment on the most recent passage of the bill.

Summer Stinson is a board member for Washington’s Paramount Duty, an organization formed to advocate in the Legislature for full funding of education. Though she believes that political pressure from constituents will result in more action, she took issue with the original bill and continued to oppose it through the legislative process.

“This really delays so many hard decisions that the Legislature is going to make next year. It’s truly waiting to the last minute to get it all done,” she said after the vote Thursday. “It isn’t inspiring leadership and it also leaves our kids in the same position they are this year for next year.”