This Week in Olympia
Coming up!
Several councils are hosting education funding meetings with legislators – or are driving attendance to legislator-sponsored town halls. Check out the schedule on the Take Action page.
Governor Jay Inslee’s education budget is the only one that meets the McCleary promise. Send a message in support of his budget to your legislators.
Week of February 28
Many of our bills progressed through floor votes this week, and it’s possible more still will pass before Wednesday, which is the policy cut-off date. That means a bill must pass on the floor of the chamber by Wednesday to move to the other chamber. The exception is bills considered Necessary to Implement the Budget, which many education are.
Action this week included:
Parent “Trigger”
On Thursday, the House Education Committee will hear HB 1215 which would allow a majority of parents to convert a school to an “innovative” (read "charter") school and eliminate the union in that school. WEA is opposed, and we don’t believe this will go anywhere because it is being heard after the bill cutoff.
Paraprofessionals
Substitute House Bill 1115 funds professional development for paraprofessionals and updates the para AA degree. This passed out of the House 95-3 and now moves to the Senate. WEA supports.
ESA’s
House Bill 1374 allows certificated education staff associates to claim prior non-school experience for placement on the salary schedule. WEA supports this bill. It looks like this may fall into the Necessary to Implement the Budget (NTIB) category.
Certification and Evaluation
House Bill 1341 adds a third option for teacher certification. In addition to ProTeach and National Board Certification, teachers could qualify for professional certification by earning 75 professional development credits. (clock hours). It passed out of the House this week, 98-0! It now moves to the Senate. WEA supports.
House Bill 1319 allows teachers who earn a three or four on their focused evaluation to continue with focused evaluations for six years before receiving a comprehensive summative evaluation (currently required every four years). This passed out of the House, 96-0, with 2 excused. HB 1319 now moves to the Senate. WEA supports.
Two year colleges
HB 1237 allows faculty at community and technical colleges to bargain salaries at the local level. It passed the House 65-32 and moves to the Senate. WEA supports this bill.
Senate Bill 5702, which modernizes school construction formulas. It passed out fo the Senate and moves to the House. WEA supports this bill.
Looking ahead
PoliSparks is Sunday and Monday. This year, about 40 WEA members who want to learn more about how to influence the political process will come to Olympia for training and lobbying experience.
The updated budget forecast will be released on March 16. We can expect the budgets to be introduced shortly thereafter. Under protocol, the Senate releases its budget first this year.
