The Senate passed its operating budget proposal for the 2015 session on a party-line 26-23 vote on April 6. Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, voted ‘no’ on the budget and offered the following statement:

“The state has already been held in contempt of court for failing to deliver a plan to fully, adequately and sustainably fund education, and another budget balanced through gimmicks and debt is regrettably a step backwards in that ongoing effort. The Columbian editorial board, not a liberal paper, called it full of ‘smoke and mirrors.’

“I recognize that the budget reduces tuition and funds a few key programs, like the Bright Futures autism screenings I have long worked for. It has additional funding for mental health and medical residences. But it still fails to fund the State Need Grant for our lower income students and leaves 30,000 likely unserved. It does nothing – not a thing – to combat carbon pollution. Most importantly, there is no attempt at any structural fix for teacher compensation.

“Though parts of the budget do fund some of parts of McCleary, it is obvious that the budget remains short of the ultimate goal of a sustainable fix. Additionally, the budget fails to even attempt to fund any parts of I-1351 for lower class sizes, even in areas where stretching into a timeline for 1351 would makes sense – like lowering class sizes in high poverty upper grades as first steps toward implementation.

“I worry that this Senate budget proposal may set the stage for furthering the constitutional crisis between the Legislature and the Supreme Court. This legislature has much more work to do.”