Senator's comments create a stir

A group of north Snohomish County and Skagit County education advocates were surprised Monday when state Sen. Val Stevens told them she disagreed with the Washington constitution's assertion that funding education is the state's paramount duty.

Stevens, R-Arlington, was meeting with about a dozen constituents, including school superintendents from Arlington, Lakewood, Darrington and Sedro-Woolley, when she reportedly took issue with Article IX, Section 1, of the Washington constitution.

That provision, which has been the basis for landmark lawsuits over education funding, says, "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex."

Several of those attending the meeting said Stevens told them she didn't agree.

The comments so surprised Darrington School Board member Tim Lovell that he said he sought clarification.

Lovell said he told Stevens, "We're all here for fully funding schools, and you're saying you disagree that education is the state's paramount duty?"

He said Stevens, who has served in the Legislature since 1992, replied, "Yes, I disagree."

Misti Gilman, a public-information coordinator for the Arlington School District, said she "couldn't believe that a senator elected and sworn to uphold the state constitution didn't believe" in its provisions.

Contacted in Olympia, Stevens didn't deny making the comments, but said her concern about education funding is that the requirements imposed on schools over the years, including AIDS education, environmental education and financial literacy, go beyond the constitutional mandate.

"The Basic Education Act of 1977 defined basic education and explained that the state has no duty to fund beyond those basic requirements," Stevens said in response to e-mailed questions. She added that the increasing social-service role of schools undercuts family responsibility for children.

Those views aren't out of line with other Republican legislators, said Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, the ranking minority member of the Senate Early Childhood & K-12 Education Committee.

"The state needs to define what basic education is so the state can be held accountable for its paramount duty," she said.

Legal experts say the education section of the state constitution is unique. More commonly, state constitutions call for a "general and uniform" education system, and sometimes go so far as to specify that the system be "efficient," said Hugh Spitzer, an affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of Law.

"No other state has quite so strong a paramount-duty clause," Spitzer said.

Around Snohomish County, Stevens is known for being outspoken. A year ago, the three-term senator told nontribal residents of the Tulalip Indian Reservation that they weren't subject to tribal police authority. She said if they were stopped by tribal police, they didn't have to roll down their car window, but could hold up a card that said, "You don't have authority over me. I'm calling a law-enforcement officer from my own government."

The comments prompted Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart, a fellow Republican, to advise citizens to cooperate with any law-enforcement officer who pulled them over.

The Washington Conservative Union, which rates legislators for their support of strong families and limited government, gave Stevens its highest cumulative rating from 2002-06 with a 98 score out of 100. It noted that she had opposed human-cloning research and homosexuality as a protected class.

Not all constituents who met with Stevens on Monday took exception to her remarks.

Tim Howland, a School Board member from Sedro-Woolley, noted that the delegation was itself seeking a constitutional amendment to replace with a simple majority the current 60 percent supermajority now needed to pass local education levies.

"Let's be fair here. She wasn't questioning the constitution as a whole. She questions that education is the state's paramount duty. I may disagree, but I don't see anything wrong with questioning it," he said.

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com