Monday E-Wire for Post Session!

This morning, the E-Wire woke up rushed thinking that he needed to be down in Olympia for *enter important legislative hearing* then realized, session is over.  Downtime.

Yeah, right – now the real work begins as legislators take stock of what happened or did not happen this session and planning  begins in earnest for the big season of 2015.  The mounting McCleary deadline for the Supreme Court is heading down the pike and should make for some interesting repercussions.  It is unclear as of this writing what the court will do, if anything, in response to the legislative session.  Time will tell, and you will likely read about it here.  On to the E-Wire…

TVW has a good post on what bills made it and what did not this session.

The No Child Left Behind Waiver for Washington will be played out behind the scenes.  Look for more info here, here, and here.

The legislature struggled with Medical Marijuana throughout the session.  It’s still a difficult topic.  So was getting their hands around the e-cigarette issue.

Although the PTA was largely successful this legislative session, a lot of other groups were not… and the media noticed.  Remember this session being about Transportation?  Not!

Senator Sharon Nelson gets the award for playing up the homeless funding bill throughout the close of the session.  In the end, it all worked out.  However, some people looked better than others.

Veterans were winners in Education, too.

Common Core coming to you soon.

There has been a slow, resounding wave of support for later start times for High School Students.  This is one more example.  The challenge for schools will be the costs of bus service.

The search for an affordable Bachelor’s degree.

Next year, expect to see more talk about protecting student privacy.

Coming in a month and a half, the legislature must respond to McCleary.  Meanwhile, in Denver…

And finally, a grassroots attempt to discuss tax exemptions in Walla Walla by a group of grandmothers.  Cool!

The E-Wire is written by PTA Staff and Edited by PTA Legislative Director Sherry Krainick