Washington State PTA Legislative Update

February 6, 2009

Welcome to the 5^th edition of the Grassroots Connection for the 2009 Legislative Session!

The next two weeks are critical to building support for our #1 priority issue, passing a bill that will lay the groundwork for education finance reform.   We need you to take action today. 

·         Talk with both your PTA and your school board about endorsing HB 1410 and Senate Bill 5444.  If they decide to endorse, let your legislators know about it and ask your newspaper to announce the endorsement.   Talking points for speaking to the bill are attached.

·         Write letters to the editor in support of these bills. 

·         Complete the action alert in our Cap-Wiz system, linked below.

 Support HB 1410 and SB 5444

Legislation Focus Day and rally, Feb. 26^th, 2009, are now just under three weeks away.  Register today!  Recruit other members and friends to come to the rally to support education finance reform, our number one priority issue, this session.  We need legislators to hear us loud and clear.   Materials are available to assist you.  Follow the links below.

Click Here to Register Online
Click here for further Focus Day Information

This week in Olympia

Education Finance bill update:  Monday I sent out an email update after the Senate Hearing where the Full Funding Coalition bill to support education finance reform was heard.  Since we are still getting questions about the WSPTA position, we want to clarify that our organizational position is to support HB 1410 and SB 5444, with the recognition that the bills still need work in some areas and that there are ideas in HB 1817 and SB 5607 that merit consideration.  Work is being done behind the scenes to reach agreement with education stakeholders on a bill that all can support.   Right now there are no further public hearings on these bills scheduled (there is a public work session on the Full Funding Coalition bill in the House on Thurs., see schedule below) for these bills, but we do need you to help by taking action as described above.

Wednesday was Assessment System day in both the House and Senate.  We appreciated that these hearings were held early this session, giving the bills much greater opportunity to move forward.  We testified in support SB 5414, which was only introduced in the Senate, which asks OSPI to work with the State Board of Education to redesign our assessment system so that it better meets the needs of students, teachers and parents.  The recommendations of this group are very closely aligned with our assessment system issue.

WSPTA also testified in support of HB 1341 and companion SB 5260, which would delink the WASL as a graduation requirement and link savings to creating an incentive program for students.  A PTA member also testified in support in the House.  Although we have no formal position on the incentive portion of the bill, this piece is still to be developed and we felt that our parents would be very interested in a study which looked at what other states are doing in this area.  Two other bills are basically technical fixes.  One of these bills HB 1562 is important and is being fast-tracked due to the significance of the bill to many students this year.  This bill would remove the current requirement that students who do not pass the math WASL must continue to take the WASL test each year until graduation.  Testimony clearly established that many schools, parents and students did not fully understand this requirement and have not complied with it.  The other requirement was that students continue to take a math course every year.  This was well understood.  It was clear that if this bill is not passed, many students would fail to graduate because they had not taken the math WASL every year, despite the fact that passing the math WASL is not currently a graduation requirement.  This bill was unanimously passed out of the House Education Committee today in Executive Session and is expected to pass. 

Today bills that represent policy ideas that have a lot of merit were heard in the House Education Committee.  These bills were in support of dropout prevention programs and eliminating the co-pays for school breakfast and lunch.  Even in this year of economic distress, policy committees will hear and pass out of committee bills that represent are good ideas, without considering whether or not they could ever be funded.  They leave the funding prioritization up to the fiscal committees.  Despite this practice, there is more talk this year about “phasing in” and “laying the groundwork” for future years when more money is available.  Bill writers appear eager to quickly compromise to reduce costs this biennium.  I don’t have figures on this, but it is clear to me that many fewer bills are being introduced this year than last year due to diminished resources.  This makes sense!

School Recess Survey Update:  Finally, WSPTA testified this week in support of a bill that would require us to collaborate with OSPI to do a statewide survey of school recess practices.  Two PTA members who were active with this issue in the past and a member of the Obesity Coalition also testified in support.  This is expected to pass out of committee. 

Next week in Olympia

Most bills start in policy committee, where they must have a public hearing.   To move to the next stage they are scheduled for executive session.  This week many more bills will start to be heard in executive session.   During these sessions the committee considers bills for amendment and then a vote is taken.  (Please note that the lists of bills for executive session can be amended at any time.  Often many more bills are added to this list before the hearing begins.)  A majority vote sends the bill to the next stage, which is usually a fiscal committee.  Once they are passed out of the fiscal committees, they go to the Rules Committee.  The Rules Committee is very important because this committee determines which bills go to the floor for final vote of either the House or Senate.  Bills need to pass both the House and the Senate, and then, not to be forgotten, they must be signed by the Governor in order to be enacted.   Enacting legislation is a long process! 

See schedule below for next week’s action.  We are in the process of reviewing bills that are relate to our priorities.  In addition to the hearings listed there are three additional Ways and Means meetings scheduled, which will only hear bills in executive session.  Executive sessions are public, but the public is not able to provide comment.  These hearings will all take place in House Hearing Room A on 2/10/09 at 3:30, 2/11/09 at 3:30 and 2/12/09 at 3:30. 

Please note that any comments added in italics to the schedule below are my add-ons.

Early Learning & K-12 Education -  02/09/09  1:30 pm

Full Committee Senate Hearing Rm 1 J.A. Cherberg Building Olympia, WA Public Hearing:   1.     SB 5449 - Regarding establishing and meeting graduation and reengagement goals. 2.     SB 5229 - Regarding the legislative youth advisory council. 3.     SB 5618 - Establishing a statewide dropout reengagement system. Possible executive session on bills heard in committee. Other business.

Thank you all for all of your ongoing advocacy efforts on behalf of our children!