McCleary at Twelve: Examining Policy Designs Following Court-Mandated School Finance Reform in Washington State

All fifty U.S. state constitutions include language that guarantees residents’ access to a free public education. Plaintiffs in all but two states have brought litigation challenging state school finance systems, and in over half the cases, judges ruled the systems unconstitutional and mandated state legislators to provide more equitable and adequate funding. In 2012, state supreme court judges ruled in favor of plaintiff school districts in McCleary v. Washington State. This study analyzes the policy proposals during the subsequent twelve years, from 2012 to 2024. We document actions of a series of statewide task forces that were formed as part of various state legislative reforms, and we highlight the limited extent to which task force recommendations influenced policy. Using John Kingdon’s multiple streams framework, we argue that for school finance policy recommendations to impact policy, three elements must be in place, including political will, a clearly articulated problem, and viable proposals. Major reforms were passed in Washington state once these streams aligned, but in the process the initial definition of the educational problem – one of educational finance equity – was redefined over time in ways that shifted the ultimate policy outcomes. We recommend that policymakers and advocates maintain clearly articulated messages about the theory of the educational problem and the maintain alignment about the recommendations for improving policies.