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On Tuesday evening, after we prepared our Update, neither the House
nor the Senate acted upon any additional education-related bills.
With last night’s house of origin cut-off, all bills that failed to
move to the opposite house are technically dead. Of course, budget
bills and bills determined to be “necessary to implement the budget”
continue to be exempt from these early cut-off deadlines. This means
that hundreds of bills died on the calendar yesterday — including
HB 3292, requiring the recording of executive sessions. There
were ongoing efforts to move the bill to the House floor as late as
yesterday afternoon; however, it was clear that the bill did not have
the votes to be adopted. In a rare move, Speaker of the House Frank
Chopp allowed Rep. Lynn Kessler, House Majority Leader and HB 3292’s
prime sponsor, to take second caucus vote count on the bill (this is
generally not done — once a bill is determined to be short of the
necessary votes, the bill is usually set aside to focus on other
priorities). Even with a second opportunity to gauge her caucus’
support, the reception was apparently chilly. Kessler was quoted as
saying the vote count was “pitiful” because too many of her colleagues
had sided with local governments (including school boards) against the
bill. Kessler reiterated that she intends to bring the issue back in
2009.
As anticipated, this afternoon budget-writers in the House unveiled
their 2008 Supplemental Operating (Proposed Substitute HB 2687),
Capital (PSHB 2765) and Transportation (PSHB 2878)
budget proposals. As reported earlier, the House’s Operating Budget
plan would leave approximately $750 million in reserve (including $429
million required reserves in the new voter-authorized Budget
Stabilization Account). The proposal would add $465.3 million in
spending to the current 2007-09 Operating Budget: $189.9 million would
be provided for increases in mandatory caseload costs (such as
required increases in Initiative 732’s Cost of Living Adjustments for
educators, debt service payments, and federal Medicaid costs); $116
million would be provided for what budget-writers called “must do”
policy adds (such as lawsuits, federal audit costs, necessary
information system upgrades, and K-12 Medicaid assistance); and policy
decisions totaling $160.4 million (including K-12 enhancements, foster
care assistance, housing assistance, long-term care and public
safety). The House’s plan also includes $184.9 million in “savings”
or budget reductions. The K-12 portion of the budget includes
enhancements of $40.6 million. This includes policy “adds” of $71.1
million, offset by “savings” of $30.6 million. (Note: these figures do
not include the funding to cover mandatory K-12 caseload increases.)
Below are some of the specific items included in the K-12 portion of
the budget; WSSDA’s next issue of Impact will provide more details.
K-12 Policy Enhancements
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$35.6 million is
provided for an additional 1% Cost of Living Adjustment for
educators (this is above the enhancement required by I-732).
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$21.2 million is
included to match federal funds for school district-based medical
services.
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$5.0 million in
flexible funding is provided to school districts in the form of
Non-Employee Related Costs (NERCs) enhancements.
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$3.0 million is
provided for enhancements to career and technical education
programs.
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$1.8 million is
provided to OSPI for necessary upgrades to the current K-12 state
funding system.
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$1.6 million is
included to provide additional Learning Assistance Program funding
to school districts which have concentrations of bilingual students
and/or students in poverty.
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$2.8 million is
included for various additional enhancements, including early
learning programs, various studies or task forces and English
language learner programs.
K-12 “Savings”
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$16.1 million is
saved by “pausing” the second-year of state funding for all-day
kindergarten originally included in the 2007-09 budget.
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$9.8 million is
saved by making various changes to the WASL, including shortening
the assessments in grades 3-8 and phasing in end-of-course
assessments for high school math.
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$4.7 million is
saved by eliminating the second-year funding included in the 2007-09
base budget for vocational and skills center programs to replace and
upgrade equipment.
The House’s 2008 Capital Construction Budget proposal includes various
enhancements to K-12 education, including $1.8 million to fund several
recommendations from the Joint Legislative Task Force on School
Construction Funding. $5.1 million is also included to expand skills
centers and study the feasibility of satellite or branch campus
programs for under-served rural areas or high-density areas.
The Operating Budget proposal received a public hearing this afternoon
in the House Appropriations Committee. The Committee is expected to
take executive action and pass the bill out tomorrow night, followed
by action by the full House as early as Friday. The budget will then
be forwarded to the Senate for its response. The Senate could release
its own budget as early as next week. The Capital and Transportation
Budgets are expected to be on a similar timeline. |
