What Did McCleary Buy?
The Seattle Times asks whether Washington is meeting its constitutional commitment to education. The court answered that in 2018 by counting dollars. A better question is whether the children learned anything, and on the one test that is the same in every state, the answer so far is no.
The Seattle Times has opened a series it calls Educating Washington, promising to take up the perennial questions of the state's schools. Its first installment, by Education Lab reporter Dahlia Bazzaz, asks a lawyer's question: Is WA meeting its constitutional commitment to education? The commitment is the opening sentence of Article IX of the state constitution, which every Washington schoolchild is supposed to have heard at least once:
It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.