In a new report, we write about the McCleary decision, education funding enhancements the state has made in response, and what remains to be done. We also provide background on the state property tax system and school funding.

Briefly:

• State funding for public schools has increased by 40.6 percent since 2009–11.
• Washington had the third highest funding increases per student nationally from 2008 to 2016.
• Property taxes are a major source of school funding.
• Local property tax levies supplement state funding for schools.
• Local maintenance and operations levies are almost always approved by voters (100 percent approval in 2014), while the Legislature’s record of increasing education funding is mixed.
• In the 1970s, the state Supreme Court said that it is unconstitutional to require school districts to depend on local levies to fund basic education.
• In the McCleary decision in 2012, the state Supreme Court again ruled that the state was not complying with its constitutional duty to fund education.
• Since 2012, the Legislature has fully funded or committed to fully fund its definition of basic education.
• The remaining items are state funding of school compensation and the elimination of the use of local levies for basic education.
• The Legislature hasn’t been able to agree on the level of funding necessary for the state to fund school compensation.
• 2016 legislation established a bipartisan task force to collect data on school compensation costs and make recommendations to the Legislature by January 2017.
• Pending the task force’s findings, many estimates of the biennial cost to the state to assume responsibility for compensation are in the $3 to $4 billion range. (It could be lower or higher than that.)
• Economic growth will likely not add enough tax revenue to cover those costs.
• A swap of state for local levy dollars or new taxes may be required.
• Centralizing school funding at the state level may not be the best way to improve student outcomes.