Voters across Washington state cast ballots in favor of school levies, even in these tough economic times. A total of 165 school districts placed measures on the special election Tuesday, asking voters to approve $4.6 billion in maintenance and operation levies. Most will likely pass. These levies supplement the basic education budgets of many districts. An additional 32 districts asked voters to approve $835 million in capital levies to fund construction or buy technology, but it appears that many of those may not pass.

In Coupeville, it looks like both the maintenance and operations levy and the technology levy will pass. More than 50 percent of voters participated in the mail-in election, which is not bad for special elections. It’s a heartening sign that residents of a small town hit by a large number of government layoffs over the last year still support their schools with their pocketbooks.

The special election comes on the heels of King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick’s ruling that the state isn’t providing adequate funding to schools. He said the state is violating the state Constitute by being miserly with school districts. Sadly, it isn’t likely that the decision will have an impact on how the state funds education anytime soon. So in the meantime, voters in communities like Coupeville will have to decide whether they want to continue making up where the state is failing.

Although maintenance and operations levies are meant to fund special programs over and above the basic, in many school districts that isn’t the case. The levies end up paying for educational fundamentals, like math and English teachers. In Coupeville, the levy amounts to about 20 percent of a budget that’s not exactly ripe with luxuries and add-ons. That simple percentage shows that Judge Erlick was right.