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.

Hearing Monday afternoon on lowering school bond requirements to 50% - with a catch...

At 1:30 today, the House Education Committee will hear House Bill 1941 and House Joint Resolution 4210 which would reduce the approval requirements for school bonds from 60% to 50%, but only if voted on during November general elections.  The Washington State PTA supports lowering this requirement but we, and many other stakeholders, have major concerns about only allowing this option during the November general elections.  As most PTA members know, general election campaigns on the local level are usually drowned out by state and national media.  In addition, the competition for volunteer resources will be fierce during this time.  We are asking the House Education Committee to consider other options to obtain enough support to pass this very important measure.   ;If you would like to comment on either bill, click these links:  HB 1941 and HJR 4210