Last year, during difficult contract talks, Mead had to make a fair offer to staff without making promises our schools could not afford. That meant weighing costs, holding our ground, and saying no when the numbers did not work. Taxpayers should expect that kind of discipline from a school board.
They should expect it from Olympia, too.
Instead, the state demands balanced school budgets while adding duties it does not fully fund and leaving major legal costs unchecked. School boards must somehow make the numbers work, and when they cannot, local families get the news about cuts to staff and programs.
Two problems deserve urgent attention: the growing cost of claims against public schools and the cost of mandates that arrive without enough money to carry them out. In my view, this system is at a breaking point.
Consider the claims system. In June, a jury awarded $17 million to two families in the Mead football hazing case. Last November, a jury awarded $8 million against Seattle Public Schools in a case involving a student punched by a teacher.
Schools must answer for harm they cause, and injured people deserve justice and fair payment. Mead is not disputing liability in its case; rather, it is appealing on several grounds, including plaintiffs’ counsel’s misconduct, to seek a fair determination of damages.
But taxpayers also have a stake in the rules governing these awards and the costs that follow them. The public is entitled to ask whether the system is still about the students — or whether the payout has become the point. These cases seem meant to test how much a public school district with an insurance policy can be forced to pay.
Insurance does not make those costs disappear. Many districts share risk-related costs through public insurance pools, where a large loss at one school can raise the price of coverage for others. Major verdicts can also raise demands in later cases. A board can closely watch every dollar and still face higher insurance bills driven by events far outside its district.
As Mead has stated, its appeal will not affect its current budget, taxes, or school services. The concern here is the long-term cost of these types of outsized jury awards on the statewide system. When insurance takes a larger share of school budgets, less is available for the work taxpayers thought they were funding.
This problem reaches beyond one kind of claim. It includes bus crashes, unsafe buildings, and failures to protect children. It also includes sexual abuse from decades ago. Time does not erase a survivor’s harm, but old claims can be hard to resolve when records, witnesses, and insurance are no longer available. The state needs a fair path to resolve those claims and a system public schools can sustain.
Tort reform is overdue.
The Senate took up a bill to reform historic abuse claims earlier this year, but it did not become law. The Washington Association of School Administrators has called for tort and liability reform next session.
Lawmakers know the problem. They should examine fair limits on damages, legal fees and added fee awards, ways to resolve valid claims sooner, and a clearer line between institutional negligence and the conduct of individual students —all within our state constitution. But another year spent discussing it without real reform is another year schools must absorb rising costs.
The second problem is Olympia’s habit of making promises and then sending local communities the bill.
In Olympia, a new school program comes with a press release and worthy goals. Back home, it comes with work someone must do and costs someone must pay. Schools are expected to address mental health needs, provide meals, meet staff benefit costs, produce public records, and follow complex complaint procedures.
Many of those goals have merit. But a meal still costs money when no bill goes to the family, and a new complaint process still takes staff time. Records requests can require searches through years of emails and a review of thousands of pages. New laws bring forms, training, reports, deadlines, and legal review—all drawing on the same limited budget.
When the state does not pay the full cost, districts must cover the gap. Local levy dollars too often help pay for work Olympia requires, including basic education needs such as services for students with disabilities.
That is an easy way for lawmakers to spend money: make the promise in Olympia and leave a local school board to explain why something else must be cut. So, before adding another mandate, lawmakers should show its full cost and how they will pay it.
Neither local taxpayers nor the state can cover costs that grow without limit. Calling every new duty a priority does not create the money to pay for it.
With elections this November and a legislative session beginning in January, now is the time to demand answers. Ask candidates and your state legislators what they will do to reform school liability laws. Ask which mandates they will fund, simplify, or repeal. When they propose another program, ask where the money will come from.
“I support our schools” is not an answer. Tell us what you will change so that we can keep living within our means.
Michael Cannon serves on the Mead School Board. He writes in his individual capacity, and the opinions expressed are his own.
