To fix school funding, high court might need the ‘atomic option’

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Greg Hanscom

Greg Hanscom Jan 12, 2018

Jan 12, 2018

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                <h1>To fix school funding, high court might need the ‘atomic option’</h1>
                <h2><p>To truly fix the state’s schools, the Washington Supreme Court might want to take a few cues from New Jersey, writes Jen Graves at the Stranger. Graves interviewed Michael Rebell, an author and teacher at Columbia University, about a time 40 years ago when the Garden State faced a</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/greg-hanscom-crosscut-com/">Greg Hanscom</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Jan 12, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>To truly fix the state’s schools, the Washington Supreme Court might want to take a few cues from New Jersey, writes Jen Graves <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/10/22835544/how-can-washington-properly-fund-its-schools-do-what-new-jersey-did?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">at the Stranger</a>. Graves interviewed Michael Rebell, an author and teacher at Columbia University, about a time 40 years ago when the Garden State faced a school-funding pickle every bit as sour as the one Washington faces today. In 1976, the state Supreme Court had ruled that the legislature had failed to meet constitutional mandates for funding schools. “Then, New Jersey's State Legislature provided a plan... but no funding,” Graves writes. “Sounding very familiar?” So the court shut down every school in the state. What happened next? Well, read <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/10/22835544/how-can-washington-properly-fund-its-schools-do-what-new-jersey-did?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Graves’ story</a>. There are interesting lessons there for Washington, all these years later.</p>
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To truly fix the state’s schools, the Washington Supreme Court might want to take a few cues from New Jersey, writes Jen Graves at the Stranger. Graves interviewed Michael Rebell, an author and teacher at Columbia University, about a time 40 years ago when the Garden State faced a school-funding pickle every bit as sour as the one Washington faces today. In 1976, the state Supreme Court had ruled that the legislature had failed to meet constitutional mandates for funding schools. “Then, New Jersey's State Legislature provided a plan... but no funding,” Graves writes. “Sounding very familiar?” So the court shut down every school in the state. What happened next? Well, read Graves’ story. There are interesting lessons there for Washington, all these years later.

By Greg Hanscom

Greg Hanscom is formerly the executive editor of Crosscut and KCTS 9 public television. In his more than two decades as a journalist, Hanscom’s writing has run the gamut from inner-city schools and ur