State budget director: No education funding deal this year

SEATTLE (AP) — The state budget director says lawmakers will not finish the work required to reform the way Washington pays for public schools during this legislative session.


That's because they require deadline pressure to reach the difficult compromises needed to cut a final deal.

Budget director David Schumacher said during a media briefing on Thursday that no one ever expected the Legislature to finish the work set out by the Supreme Court in the 2012 McCleary decision until the 2017 session.

But that doesn't mean they haven't been working on a solution to the remaining issues up for debate. Those issues focus on the state's overreliance on local school tax levies and how to pay teachers with mostly state dollars.

Schumacher says the governor will share the results of those ongoing discussions late in the fall, after the election, but before the Legislature reconvenes next January.