Saturday, September 8, 2012

In an earlier post I shared the January State Supreme Court decision that required the legislature to report back this month on what they will do to amply fund education.  This article posted on King5.com tells us that little progress has been made as the date rapidly approaches.  It seems that there are issues related to whether the meetings to discuss the response should be open to the public or attorney-client privilege.


All summer, various legislative committees focused on education have been meeting, but the one committee assigned by lawmakers to report back to the Supreme Court has yet to convene.

The Senate members of that committee wanted to meet at the end of August to talk about the report, but House members had legal concerns and declined to meet, Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, told The Associated Press.

She said the debate came down to one issue: Was the assignment by the Supreme Court something the Legislature should deal with in a public committee? Or was it an issue of attorney-client privilege -- and therefore the lawyers representing the Legislature should handle all communications with the court?
Committee members have been working on a solution, say Rolfes and Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia. Staff has been in touch with every committee member individually to discuss the report and will have a draft ready for discussion at a meeting next week, probably on Wednesday in the Seattle area, said Rep. Jaime Pedersen, D-Seattle.

I don't see how the legislators are going to show  the court progress without new revenue of some sort, something neither of the governor candidates is suggesting is necessary.  Well, they have until September 17th to respond.  It will be interesting and informative to see the response.  It should give us insights into our short term future funding.  The response, however, could also be short lived depending on the make-up of the new legislature following the November elections.

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