Each time state lawmakers find themselves in legal trouble over failing to fully fund public schools, some Washington taxpayers invariably ask: What about lottery money? Isn’t that supposed to fund education? The truth is, even if all lottery profits went to basic education, that money would still be woefully inadequate to solve the state’s school-funding problems. Those court sanctions stem from a school funding lawsuit known as McCleary, in which the state Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the state was failing to meet its constitutional obligation to fully fund basic education.