School Superintendent Randy Dorn Offers Fully Funded "Go-Home" McCleary Proposal

Citing the need to take the discussion on resolving the McCleary Lawsuit to a new level, State School Superintendent Randy Dorn introduced his plan to fully fund McCleary last week at a press conference in Olympia.  The proposal would extend the phase-in of McCleary to 6 years in order to leave time to recruit and train enough teachers and support staff to meet class size reduction requirements.  Unlike current plans on the table, the Dorn Plan funds class size reductions for K-12 and require fully funding teacher compensation at the state level.  His revenue proposal was rolled out in an additional press conference on Monday morning and is described below in a separate article.

WSPTA gives Board Endorsement of Initiative 594

WSPTA is saddened by the number of recent shootings that have taken place at schools across our country. Our mission states that PTA is a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families, schools and communities, and a strong advocate for the well-being and education of every child.

During the October 2013 WSPTA Legislative Assembly in Seatac, the following policy was adopted by members:  The Washington State PTA shall initiate and/or support legislation or policies that extend criminal background checks to the purchase of guns from non-licensed sellers.

On April 24, 2014, the WSPTA board of directors discussed the upcoming initiatives 594 and 591 that will be on the November ballot. Our legislative director, Sherry Krainick brought forth information from her state legislative committee members. After discussion and debate the board voted to endorse and support initiative 594 on extending background checks on gun purchases from non-licensed dealers.  Support at this time will not include financial resources but may include very limited use of our grassroots network, action alerts and other communications that may be timely.

At that time the board also voted to oppose initiative 591 (an Act relating to protecting gun and other firearm rights; adding new sections to chapter 9.41 RCW; and creating new sections.)

WSPTA keeps kids at the focus of everything we do. While we understand this is not a solution for children’s safety, we do recognize that this is one small step in that direction. 

Endorsing Initiatives

A fellow PTA member is gathering signatures for Initiative 594 which would increase background checks on gun sales.  She has requested that I set out the signature sheet at our next general PTA meeting.  She said the PTA was in support of this initiative.  Although I might be personally in favor of this initiative, I'm reluctant to bring anything political into our meeting.  However, if it is done unobtrusively it might be ok to have it at the meeting?