Our Sunday editorial highlights the need for more constructive leadership on the legislative education committees.

If past performance is any indication, Senate Education Chair Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, and House Education Chair, Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, have been obstacles to reform.

It's a bad time to be ineffective. The Washington Supreme Court has ruled the state is not meeting its important obligation to properly fund K-12 education. This month, voters passed a charter schools initiative. The pair refused to even consider charter-school bills during the 2012 session.

Following the campaign money trail provides insight into why McAuliffe and Tomiko Santos have not done more to shift the status quo. McAuliffe won her re-election to the state Senate despite being outraised by her Republican opponent, Dawn McCravey. She was also the target of massive independent expenditures by pro-reform groups. Those efforts were not enough to unseat the five-term Democrat, who also received an infusion of support from the state's largest teachers' union.

Tomiko Santos did not draw an opponent this year. Her finance reports indicate she spent far less than most other candidates to keep her seat.

State Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell

(Scroll over photo below for links to campaign finance reports and related web sites.)

Total raised: $195,226

Highlights from top individual donors: Senate Democratic Campaign Committee ($43,500), 1st District Democrats ($12,000), 1st Legislative District Democrats ($2,000), AFT Washington COPE ($1,400)

Donors who gave maximum contributions of $900: public employees and trade unions, tribes, education groups, and individuals affiliated with schools.

Independent expenditures by groups supporting McAuliffe totaled $178,225.60:

$128,295.48 Washington Education Association PAC

Purpose: cable TV ads, media buys, direct mail, shipping, persuasion calls, polling, airtime

$48,783.50 Working Families for the 1st (funded by the Washington State Labor Council's DIME PAC, according to this column from The Herald)

Purpose: direct mail, cable air time

$1,146.62 NARAL Pro-Choice Washington PAC

Purpose: mail

Outside interest groups spent $335,715.83 trying to unseat McAuliffe:

$262,586.57 Stand for Children PAC

Purpose: TV production, mailers, air time, staff time, persuasion calls

$50,100 Washington Taxpayers United

Purpose: mailers

$17,457.54 Good Government Leadership Council (a Republican-backed group, according to this Washington State Wire report.)

Purpose: mailers

$5,571.72 Family Policy Action

Purpose: mailers

State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle

(Scroll over photo below for links to campaign finance reports and related web sites.)

Total raised: $41,269.24

Donors who gave maximum contributions of $900: BF Foods, Campaign for Tribal Self-Reliance, Class A Properties, David Fukuhara, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, NW Credit Union Association, Washington Education Association PAC, Washington School Principals Association, Washington Physical Therapy PAC, Jerry Whitsett

Tomiko Santos ran unopposed this year, so there were no independent expenditures on her behalf.

(Source: Public Disclosure Commission)