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2016 Legislative Session Summary

04/06/2016
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Capitol from the sky

End of session highlights

The 2016 legislative session came to a close last week. Below is a summary of the key bills we were following. What you won’t see, however, is even the modest pay bumps as proposed by Governor Inslee and the Democratic House. The Senate refused to go along.

The lack of action from the legislature just reinforces the need to bargain well at the local level. Our bargaining rights remain intact, but we anticipate that legislative proposals to change TRI could come next year. With about 140 bargains open this year, there is plenty of opportunity to push for better pay and meet student needs at the local level. After all, districts have a combined total of about $1.2 billion in reserves statewide.

McCleary funding SB 6195

As widely reported, the “Plan for the Plan” bill was the first passed out of both chambers and signed by the governor. SB 6195 leaves all remaining McCleary funding until the 2017 session, the last session before the 2017-18 deadline.

Charter Schools SB 6194

The legislature passed a charter schools law in attempt to overcome the unconstitutionality issue. The governor did not sign the bill, but saying “he didn’t want to close any schools,” let it pass into law.

Educator shortage E2SSB 6455

This bill was signed by the governor and funded in the budget. It includes:

  • $3.5 million in additional funds for mentoring for new educators (BEST program).
  • $1.4 million to higher education to increase the number of students in education programs to become teachers.
  • Allows teachers who retire early by using the “2008 Early Retirement Factors” to go back to work as substitute teachers for 867 hours per year.
  • Maintains current certification requirements for teachers
  • Enables tuition waivers for all K-12 classified employees who take courses relevant to their work assignment at any Community and Technical College or public 4-year higher education institutions.

Notably, the best plan to address educator shortages – by improving pay – was not in the final budget. Though Governor Inslee and the Democratic House included very modest pay boosts in their budgets, the Senate refused to go along, ignoring that Washington teacher pay is dead last on the west coast..

Paraeducators SB 6408

  • The effort to impose unfunded professional development and certification requirements on paraeducators didn’t pass. This is good news.
  • On a related note, not in SB 6408, but in the budget: $1.75 million for paraeducator PD. The funds go to OSPI without any specific details about the structure and delivery of the training.  We will continue to follow the implementation of this training.

Higher education

  • HB 2615 would have converted some part time faculty positions to full time. It passed off the House floor, but died in the Senate.
  • Increment funding was not included in the budget, though a budget proviso is still in effect till July 2017 that allows locals to bargain for increments.
  • The budget included $8 million for tuition backfill to correct for errors made last year, and $18 million toward the State Need Grant.

Testing

  • Several testing bills, including variations on delinking were in play this session with none of them passing.
  • Only one bill HB 2670, drafted and supported by WEA, proposed a complete delink, opt-out, and test reduction. It was introduced but not moved forward.
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