Paramount

The State Supreme Court issued an order that the legislature isn’t on track to fully fund education by 2017:

“The State clearly made strides in 2013, which should not be overlooked: But the court is very concerned that measured by the current rate of progress, the state is not going to be in compliance with the constitution by the 2017-18 school year,” wrote Chief Justice Barbara Madsen.

The order, signed by eight of nine justices — conservative Justice Jim Johnson did not sign — told the Legislature to deliver a plan by April to phase in a full school funding plan.

The Legislature did budget $982 million in 2013 to bolster education, but the court noted that this amounted to only a 6.7 percent increase over the current, constitutionally inadequate level of support to the state’s public schools.

In the post looking forward to the legislative session, I’d said that there probably wouldn’t be too many accomplishments, and that probably still holds. But maybe this will actually shake some money loose for education. Hopefully it doesn’t come from further dismantling the social safety net. I’m not sure that education works as well as possible for hungry children.