| WSSDA Daily Legislative Update – 2008
Session
REPORT FOR FEBRUARY
12
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| On Sunday and
Monday, almost 400 school directors and administrators gathered in
Olympia for the annual WSSDA/WASA Legislative Conference. Attendance
was a bit lower than expected, given that all three major mountain
passes that join Western and Eastern Washington were closed off-and-on
last week. After hearing from a number of speakers on Sunday
afternoon, including a panel of legislators and State Superintendent
Terry Bergeson, attendees went to the Capitol en masse on Monday for
the "Day on the Hill." From all accounts meetings with legislators
went fairly well. If you have not provided feedback regarding your
meetings with legislators, please contact us with that important
information. Also, please remember to follow up your meetings with
thank you notes and any additional information you may have promised
to provide. On Monday,
the House Appropriations Committee met most of the day hearing and
acting on bills with fiscal impacts in an effort to adopt priority
legislation before today's cut-off deadline. The Senate Ways and Means
Committee met for several hours yesterday — and again today — also
trying to meet today's deadline. All bills must be adopted by their
original house fiscal committee by this evening in order to remain
alive. Of course, budget bills and bills considered "necessary to
implement the budget" remain exempt from these early cut-off dates.
In the last few days, the
House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee
have heard and/or passed out over 200 bills — many of them
education-related. There are too many bills to list in this Update;
however, below is a list of many of the bills that have recently been
adopted by the House Appropriations Committee. As this Update is being
prepared, the Senate Ways and Means Committee continues to meet with
numerous education-related bills still on its agenda. We'll provide
updates on those bills later.
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HB 1806 – Model
integrated pest management program
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HB 2332 – School
district levies
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HB 2523 – OSPI
world language supervisor
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HB 2597 –
Kindergarten readiness assessment
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HB 2598 – Online
mathematics curriculum
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HB 2635 – School
district boundaries and organization
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HB 2709 – School
districts price preference for locally grown food
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HB 2722 – Advisory
committee for African-American achievement gap
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HB 2775 – National
Board bonus for teachers
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HB 2798 – Local
farms-healthy kids act
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HB 2808 –
Assistance for students who have not completed all graduation
requirements
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HB 2809 –
Mathematics and science teachers
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HB 2810 –
Assistance for school districts with English language learners
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HB 2811 – Healthy
student grant program
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HB 2826 – Career
and technical education
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HB 2869 – National
Board bonus for principals
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HB 2870 –
Professional development for instructional assistants
- HB 3166 –
State assessment system design and the WASL
For the next week,
legislative action moves to the House and Senate chambers. Legislators
will attempt to adopt priority bills before the next cut-off date
arrives. All bills must be adopted by their house of origin by 5:00
p.m. Feb. 19 in order to remain alive.
Some of the
legislative action will also take place behind-the-scenes, as
budget-writers in the House and Senate prepare a 2008 Supplemental
Operating Budget proposal. The update of the state's Revenue Forecast
will be released on Friday, Feb. 15. A House Appropriations Committee
budget proposal is anticipated as early as next week. |
Return to
Legislative Report Index
Legislative Reports are prepared by WSSDA's Governmental Relations staff team:
Dan Steele (360/252-3010) and
Sheila Chard (360/252-3011). If
you have questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us.
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