The Washington Education Budget After McCleary: A Longitudinal Study of Court-Ordered Education Finance Reform

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the policy response of the Washington State Legislature to the order handed down by the State Supreme Court in McCleary v. State of Washington to reform the education finance system. It compares national historical trends nationwide of court-ordered education finance reform as a benchmark for Washington’s case. As a backdrop, according to a collection of studies arranged by the National Education Association (NEA), there is a causal link between an increase in K-12 spending and quality of education which leads to higher earnings post-graduation, an increased likelihood of going to college, an increase in educational attainment, and a decrease in dropout rates.1 It was found that a ten percent increase in education spending per student results in a two percent increase in posthigh school graduate earnings and a 0.6% increase in educational attainment.2 It was also found that a five-student decrease on average in the student-teacher ratio of a classroom resulted in a 0.4% increase of return on state-based institutional education and that a ten percent increase in teacher salaries resulted in a 0.1% in institutional education; overall, they found that a 10% increase in school investment results in a 1-2% increase in post-high school earnings.3 Another study found that a ten percent decrease in teacher to student ratio would result in a 1-2% high school graduation rate.4 Another study found that an increase in teacher salaries per student expenditures results in an increase in post-high school graduate income.5 Another study found that whether or not teachers had graduate degrees had a positive correlative relationship with high school graduates going to college; they also found that being in smaller classes in K-12 resulted in a higher chance of going to a four-year college as opposed to a two-year college.6 The NEA also found that a funding cut to K-12 had a more significant negative effect on quality of education than an equivalent increase. A study found that if there was a ten percent decrease in the student-teacher ratio it would result in a 20% decrease in dropouts per birth cohort and a proportional increase in high school graduates becoming college graduates.