OLYMPIA, Wash. - If state lawmakers don’t take action this year on school funding, the Supreme Court has been encouraged to declare the budget unconstitutional or even shut down schools.
"Other states have taken very drastic steps. Those are available to us,” said Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst.
But she doesn’t like talking about worst-case scenarios. She never has.
In 2009, then-Supreme Court Justice Fairhurst was diagnosed with colon cancer.
When it spread to her lungs in 2011, doctors told her it was terminal.
“I said, ‘Doctor, those are old numbers, right? Those are based on numbers in the past. Those don’t have to be my numbers, right?’” said Chief Justice Fairhurst, who was sworn in last month.
She’s now cancer-free thanks to what she calls a positive attitude and her miracle.
"People think it’s impossible. I say impossible things happen every day.”
She hopes her story will inspire lawmakers to reach a deal this year to change the way the state funds schools.
The State Supreme Court is holding lawmakers in contempt, fining the legislature $100,000 a day until they change school districts' reliance on local levies to make up for a lack of state funding.
In her January speech, after becoming Chief Justice, she listed a number of reasons why she believed lawmakers could come to an agreement. She noted they were sworn to uphold the Constitution, which states the “paramount duty” is to amply fund education.
Chief Justice Fairhurst also said she believes in miracles, just like when doctors told her she was going to die.
“Whatever the Legislature has done in the past, that’s what they’ve done in the past,” said Chief Justice Fairhurst. “That road has been walked. What are we going to do now? I believe we can do it.”
