Washington State Consitution

Article IX, Section 1. Preamble.

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.

Article IX, Section 2. Public school system.

The legislature shall provide for a general and uniform system of public schools. The public school system shall include common schools, and such high schools, normal schools, and technical schools as may hereafter be established. But the entire revenue derived from the common school fund and the state tax for common schools shall be exclusively applied to the support of the common schools.

Article IX, Section 4. Sectarian control or influence prohibited.

All schools maintained or supported wholly or in part by the public funds shall be forever free from sectarian control or influence.

Article III, Section 1. Executive Department.

The executive department shall consist of a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, and a commissioner of public lands, who shall be severally chosen by the qualified electors of the state at the same time and place of voting as for the members of the legislature.

Article III, Section 22. Superintendent of public instruction, duties and salary.

The superintendent of public instruction shall have supervision over all matters pertaining to public schools, and shall perform such specific duties as may be prescribed by law. He shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, which may be increased by law, but shall never exceed four thousand dollars per annum.

[The second sentence needs to be deleted as it is superseded by Article 28 (Amd. 78, 1986, State Salary Commission).]

<< Back to Governance Structure