Dive Brief:

• On Thursday, the Washington state Supreme Court ruled that the state must pay $100,000 per day in fines until lawmakers craft a comprehensive plan to fully fund schools by 2018.
• The fine stems from an earlier ruling that found lawmakers had violated the state's constitution by failing to provide adequate funding for schools.
• The court urged Gov. Jay Inslee and lawmakers to open a special legislative session in order to hash out a compromise and prevent further sanctions. The fine money will go into a fund to pay for basic education and could be refunded if the legislature comes up with a plan.

Dive Insight:

Funding levels across the country have stagnated below pre-recession levels even as accountability pressures have mounted. Some, especially on the right, say the result has been a streamlining in overbuilt bureaucracies and a more competitive approach to schooling. But schools and districts have struggled to produce higher performance with fewer funds, and some educators and parents have tried to find ways to fight back by petitioning lawmakers or taking the issue to court.

The courts have often been responsive to those requests, placing mandates on state lawmakers to craft solutions. That has happened in Kansas and California, as well as Washington. But some experts say that court mandates can produce unwieldy solutions that may not suit the needs of individual districts or provide lawmakers enough latitude to craft compromises that prevent battles down the line.

In Washington, teacher unions and family groups say that without the court ruling, the state would never have acted. Even with the court’s involvement, the state has failed to craft a longstanding solution since the original ruling eight years ago. But lawmakers say the court crossed the line, and is attempting to determine state policy. Similar accusations were made in a Kansas state funding case. Still, the courts have managed to retain their authority to force states to funnel more money into the education system.