By Steve Berry
Peninsula College administrators are watching how the McCleary decision will affect community college funding.
“For the past 10 years the state has traditionally cut funding for higher education” Peninsula College President Luke Robins said.
Community colleges will probably receive less money in the wake of the McCleary decision.
“Peninsula College lost one third of its state funding during previous state budget cuts. Legislator’s implemented big tuition increases as a way to partially offset these cuts. The cuts have not been fully restored. Higher education is labor intensive – over 85 percent of PC’s funding goes to pay for faculty and staff. Funding reductions means fewer people to teach, to provide student services, to support classroom technology, to clean and maintain buildings and provide campus safety – in short, money is how we accomplish teaching and learning.” Debra Fraiser Vice President for Finance and Administration for Peninsula College said in an email.
“Many state leaders say that they intend to set spending priorities within the current state revenue levels – the ‘pie’ isn’t going to get any bigger. This approach means that higher education spending is in jeopardy. The ‘slice’ of the pie going to respond to the McCleary decision will mean smaller slices for other areas of the state budget. Requirements to fund K-12 education and other mandatory expenditures combined with the budget cuts over the past several year, means that higher education is the sector of the budget that has ‘discretionary’ dollars. In other words, higher education is where legislators can make the slice smaller respond to McCleary” Frasier said in the same email.
In 2007 the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, NEWS, filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington on behalf of the McClearys, the Venemas and all of their children. The suit alleged that the state was not meeting its constitutional duty regarding ample funding for education K-12.
In 2012 the state Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the plaintiff in McCleary v. State.
The Feb 2010 Final Judgment and Jan 2012 Supreme Court decision also confirmed the defendant’s longtime violation of the State Constitution: “Article IX, section 1 confers on children in Washington a positive constitutional right to an amply funded education and the State has consistently failed to adequately fund the education.
The Supreme Court retained jurisdiction of the case to monitor the progress. An order was given requiring periodic progress reports from the state.
The Supreme Court responded to the 2012 and 1013 report it by saying it fell short and warning that 2018 was a firm deadline.
In June of 2014 the Supreme Court issued a “show cause” order. In September of 2014 the state was found to be in contempt but was given grace that it will be purged if the 2015 report produces a plan for full funding.