This Week in Olympia

Week 1 in Olympia

Welcome to “This Week in Olympia,” the weekly run down on the action in our state’s capitol this legislative session.

State of the State

On Tuesday, the Governor gave his State of the State address in which he highlighted his proposal to increase starting pay for teachers to $40,000 and to give all other school employees, including classified staff, a 1% raise. 

WEA supports this proposal, but don’t mistake that support to mean we think it is enough. It is a modest first step toward improving pay, but that’s it, just a step. And, of course it is only a proposal at this point; it needs to be approved by both the Senate and the House. 

Budget Hearings

Both the Senate and the House held committee hearings on the Governor’s budget. In both chambers, we supported the Governor’s pay proposal and advocated for more funding for Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC) for CTE programs. We also urged a fix to state funding for two year college salaries. 

Charter Schools

On Tuesday, the Senate Early Learning/K-12 Committee heard two charter school bills.  SB 6194, sponsored by Sen. Litzow (R – 41^st LD), slightly amended the initiative that was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.  It would fund charter schools from the lottery. It will be heard in Ways and Means next week.

The second bill, SB 6163, sponsored by Senators Billig (D – 3^rd LD) and Baumgartner (R – 6^th LD), required charters schools to report to their local school board.  It didn’t move out of committee and is most likely dead.

Testing

It looks like many testing bills could be heard this session, including one favored by WEA, HB 2670. Representative Jesse Young (R - 26^th LD) is the prime sponsor with several others signing on from both parties.  We are sensing interest for a Senate bill as well.

On Wednesday, WEA joined students, parents and representatives of the NAACP and the Vietnamese Refugee Organization, to deliver 2,000 petitions in support of the student testing bill of rights to the State Board of Education. For a more complete rundown, check out this post.   

Next week:

There are many bills seeing action next week. Of particular note are:

McCleary

The Senate will hold a hearing Monday on SB 6195, sponsored by Sen. Rivers (R – 18^th LD), which defines the legislature’s plan to meet its McCleary obligation, including a new comparable wage analysis to update the one completed in 2012. We continue to urge the legislature to increase wages and reduce class sizes which are critical to students right now.  The House has a companion bill, HB 2366 sponsored by Rep. Lytton (D—40^th LD) that will be heard on Wednesday.

Levies

The House and Senate are both hearing bills that would avoid the levy cliff. Two bills would extend the higher levy authority by one year (HB 2698 sponsored by Rep. Lytton and SB 6353 sponsored by Senator Rivers). In addition, the Senate is hearing another bill (SB 6183 sponsored by Sen. McAuliffe) that would extend the higher levy authority by four years followed by a phase down. We support efforts to ensure stable funding for districts.

Paraeducators

The House Education committee has a hearing on HB 1293, which was introduced last year by Rep. Bergquist (D – 11^th LD), which would require paraeducators to be licensed. We continue to oppose this action.