The five members of the Federal Way board of education, acting on behalf of the entire district, have agreed to sue the State of Washington for no longer fulfilling its own mandate.

The Washington State Constitution declares it's the state's duty to "make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its border" and "provide for a general and uniform system of public schools."

Federal Way schools are receiving neither ample nor uniform consideration, says the district.

According to Superintendent Tom Murphy, although the Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) comprise the seventh largest school district in the state, the district ranks 263rd in terms of dollars spent per student.

At the board meeting on October 24, school officials unanimously passed Resolution #2006-28, directing the district's attorneys to file a complaint against the state for using unfair formulas when determining funding for teaching, administrative and classified staff across the state.

"It's a last resort," Sally McLean, FWPS's chief financial officer said last Thursday.

"But sometimes that's what you need."

McLean said the board has drafted a complaint and plans to file it with King County Superior Court by mid-November.

Once filed, the district anticipates a wait of 12 to 18 months for its day in court.

Referred to as the "Fair School Funding" lawsuit, each of the board members will be named as plaintiffs in the case. There are also three co-plaintiffs to represent teachers, administrators and classified staff.

The district claims that during the 2006-2007 school year, an additional $11.5 million would have gone to FWPS, had it received funding equal to some other districts around the state.

In a letter sent to Governor Gregoire, Senator Eide and Representatives Miloscia and Priest, Superintendent Murphy gave some detailed examples of funding inequities.

"The state does not fund each school district equally, in spite of the Doran decisions of the late seventies and early eighties," said Murphy. "For example, the state salary allocation for teachers in Northshore is $33,120. The state only provides Federal Way with $31,386. If you were to fund us at the Northshore level our District would receive an additional $2.6 million dollars. The state salary allocation for administrators in Highline is $57,689. The state provides Federal Way with $50,361. If you were to fund us at the Highline level our district would receive an additional $625,000. The average salary allocation for classified staff in King County is $29,554. The state provides Federal Way with $28,834. If you were to fund us at the King County average our district would receive an additional $360,000. Every time you approve a "percentage" increase to salaries you exacerbate the problem and make the state funding gulf wider between Federal Way and almost every other school district in the state."

Lars Erikson, press secretary for Governor Gregoire, said last Thursday that the governor could not comment on pending litigation.

This won't be the first time the state has been sued over educational funding. In 1977, after a judge ruled in favor of Seattle's school district in Seattle Public Schools v. State the legislature passed the Appropriations Act, redefining the state's funding obligations.

"After that, the portion of our district's budget funded by local taxes dropped from 23.7 percent in 1977 to 7.9 percent by 1980...but that percentage is now back up to over 17 percent," said Dave Larson, the newest school board member and the board's representative to the Washington State School Director's Association's Legislative Assembly. In an interview with the Federal Way News after his appointment in June, Larson stated his top priority was to address the funding inequities.

After the board meeting last week, Larson said he's spent the past three months preparing for the impending lawsuit and rallying his colleagues to support the action.

"As I wrote in a column for the Seattle Times last month, the question is not necessarily whether funding is adequate across the board, but whether the funds allocated by the legislature for education are fairly disbursed. Our system of funding is not conducive to creating a "general and uniform system of public schools"; it has created a system where some school districts are more equal than others."

In a report released in 2004, The Washington State PTA found that when looking at a combination of local, state and federal funding sources, Federal Way was the lowest funded school district in the state. Using data from the 2000-2001 school year, the study found FWPS received $5,851 in per-pupil revenue. At the top was Mason County's Hood Canal school district, which received $9,687 per student.

"We've got to level the playing field," said McLean.

Nationwide, 44 states have been sued over state-funding methods, according to the Education Commission of the States, a public policy institute in Colorado. After the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that the federal constitution did not guarantee education as a fundamental right, increased scrutiny was placed on the role of each state.

By taking Washington State to court, the FWPS hope that scrutiny will result in more equitable funding.