-Sen. Christine Rolfes

At the start of the legislative session, the leaders of the Republican majority promised to focus on education, jobs and the budget.

Well, so much for education.

In 2012, the state Supreme Court spelled out the state’s single biggest priority when it ordered the Legislature to adequately fund education.

The ruling was clear.

The courts did not rule that teachers were teaching inadequately. They ruled that the Legislature was funding education inadequately.

The court did not say parents were falling down on the job or that we need some new magical type of school. The court said the Legislature wasn’t doing its job.

The court gave us a test. The test is to fund education. Not to scribble in the margins or tinker with the rules but to provide the funding our educational system sorely lacks.

And this week the Republican majority flunked. Abysmally.

Refusing to even allow hearing for Democratic bills that would properly fund education, as the Supreme Court directed, the Republicans instead trotted out one bill after another to pitch our schools a plethora of new, hollow promises.

In other words, at a time when the court told us our job was to give our children the additional education funding they desperately need, the Republicans’ solution was to run up the credit card. And apparently at the same time that they’re burying our teachers and schools with unrealistic expectations, the Republican majority is planning to slash their pay and benefits.

The Republican majority faced a big test this week, and should get a big red F.