Legislator town halls are coming this
weekend– please consider attending to share your support for fully funding
basic education – check the Grassroots Blog for details!!
Greetings Sportsfans!
The E-Wire is again down in Olympia for the first round of
hearings of bills from the opposite house. The Graveyard of bills has
grown to epic proportions – of the 275 bills we were following, only 98 remain
alive at this moment plus one bill, The Dream Act, which is on the Governor’s
Desk. This morning, the House Education Committee heard 7 bills including
the Senate Version of the Paraeducator Bill. Director Krainick testified
on two of these: Paraeducators and Expanded Learning Opportunities.
This afternoon, the fun extends to the House Bills in the Senate with 10 bills
in the Senate and we are expected to testify on Paraeducator (House Bill) and
Improving Educational Outcomes for Homeless Students.
House and Senate Hearings on bills will continue until next
Friday when the 2nd and final legislative cut-off ensues. So
far, the only version of any budget released from either the House or the
Senate is the Transportation Budget which has a clause allowing for sales tax
dollars collected on Transportation Projects to be reinvested in the
transportation fund. This is contrary to current state policy which moves
that funding into the General Fund where most of it is utilized in
Education. At the moment, this piece of the package is a non-starter with
the Senate Democrats and the House – but… it is early.
Speaking of budgets, the Economic and Revenue Forecast
Council met today – revenues are up, so are caseloads. Sounds like a
broken record. Nick Federici who follows these committees for us quoted
both Senate Ways and Means Chair Andy Hill and House Appropriations Chair Ross
Hunter. Their quotes are below:
“Rep. Hunter indicated that this was ‘not much change’, and
that a supplemental budget was needed to factor in any caseload changes and
emergencies like fires that were not dealt with in last year's budget.”
“Sen. Hill added that this was ‘just a minor adjustment’,
and when asked whether this changed his assumptions about the need to do a
supplemental budget, responded, ‘If we do it, it will just be to deal with
caseload changes, any emergencies, and one-time opportunities that will save
money in the future’.”
So, more to come there. We think?
Top Story – Two Big Actions – One in the House (Dream Act)
and one in the Senate (Failure of the Teacher Principal Evaluation NCLB Waiver
Fix Bill) and both have broad implications. Watching the Dream Act Pass
in the House last night was sheer pleasure, and was a happier place to spend my
time than to watch the drama unfold in the Senate (Translation: I
opted to watch an episode of Glee over taking in the Season Finale of House of
Cards – TIVO right?). I have my take on the T/PEP bill and you
can catch it below the fold.
Here is the aggregate for both bills from Publicoa - http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/tuesday-jolt-februaryteacheevalgoesdown-2014
- House Democrats giddy over the Passage of the Dream Act (and why not, last
night former House Higher Ed Chair and retired legislator Phyllis Kenney
watched in the wings the passage of her latest hurrah and Speaker Chopp opened
the legislative session by voting out the act as his first order of business)
- http://housedemocrats.wa.gov/the-advance/dream-act-is-on-the-governors-desk/
- TVW on the Dream - http://capitolrecord.tvw.org/2014/02/real-hope-act-washington-version-of-dream-act-passes-house/#.UwT9mfldWE4
– TVW reviews the Failure of SB 5246 - http://capitolrecord.tvw.org/2014/02/senate-rejects-changes-to-teacher-evaluations-19-to-28/#.UwT9o_ldWE4
– as does the TNT - http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/02/18/3054728/wa-senate-kills-attempt-to-keep.html
and the Everett Herald - http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140218/NEWS03/140219011/Senate-defeats-teacher-evaluation-bill
- WEA’s position here - http://ourvoicewashingtonea.org/
So, with the failure of the changes to the Teacher and
Principal Evaluations, the question is now what? Well, lots. There
is still ongoing discussions with the Fed’s about Washington keeping the
Waiver. This wouldn’t result in a loss of funding as some people have
indicated, but rather it would add restrictions on how the money could be
utilized. The legislature still has 22 days left to come up with a
solution if they need to, and already members from both parties are trying to
come up with ideas that are politically palatable. Time will tell what
exactly that looks like.
Onto the E-Wire
The Bellingham Herald tries to unpack the logic of Tim Eyman
- http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/02/18/3459125/because-the-people-said-so-thats.html
AWB discusses the Opportunity and Skills Gap
New Study Studies shows that grades are a better predictor
of college success than test scores
Seattle School Bus Drivers looking to strike
Early Learning Bill Also Passes House - http://capitolrecord.tvw.org/2014/02/boost-of-early-learning-passes-house/#.UwT9pfldWE4
and we are ahead of the game here - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/early_years/2014/02/only_pa_links_data_for_young_children_states_should_do_more_study_says.html
Something to watch - http://www.king5.com/news/local/Seattle-Childrens-seeing-an-increase-in-youth-sports-injuries-245994231.html
Where to put your best and brightest
Representative Carlyle Bill on Tax Preferences passes House
- http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/spincontrol/2014/feb/18/house-calls-more-info-tax-preferences/
Part Four on Kitsap Sun’s series of articles on Student
Discipline - http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2014/feb/18/bremerton-teacher-focuses-on-doing-discipline/#axzz2tgwuqYTf
And finally – Union Gap School is the test case for School
Security planning nationwide
The E-Wire is written by PTA Legislative Staff and
Edited by PTA Legislative Director Sherry Krainick. Got questions?!
E-mail Director Krainick at PTALEGDIR@wastatepta.org
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