Lawmakers Held in Contempt of Education

Washington state’s supreme court decided Thursday to hold the legislature in contempt for its lack of progress on fixing the way the state pays for public education. The court promised to reconvene and impose sanctions and other measures if lawmakers do not make plans to solve the problem by the end of the 2015 session. Possible punishment includes fines, having the court rewrite the state budget, and revoking tax exemptions. The cost of the reforms has been estimated at upwards of $4 billion in each biennial state budget. In the most recent budget, the split legislators—Republicans control the state senate while Democrats run the state house—added about $1 billion in education funding, but could not agree on where to make cuts or how to raise taxes to satisfy the court.