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Tuesday morning, the House Education Appropriations
Committee held a public hearing on five bills of
interest to school directors: HB 2759, HB 2893, HB 2776,
HB 2840 and HB 2746.
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HB 2759 would exclude from school districts'
levy bases state or federal allocations that are
based on non-resident students enrolled in an online
school program. This bill is intended to keep school
districts from starting online school programs for
financial motives, rather than for academic
purposes.
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HB 2893, a companion to SB 6518 (adopted by the
Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee on
Monday) would increase local school districts’ levy
lids by 4 percent and increase Local Effort
Assistance to all eligible districts from the
current 12 percent levy rate to 14 percent.
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HB 2776 would adopt new funding distribution
formulas for K-12 education. This QEC-related bill
would begin the implementation of HB 2261 (Basic
Education finance reform) by attaching numerical
values to allocations in the prototypical school
funding formula.
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HB 2840 would add additional tasks to the Local
Finance Working Group (as established by HB 2261).
The Working Group would be required to examine and
report on how local levy funds are used for
supplemental employee related costs beyond state
funding allocations.
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HB 2746 would modify the charge of the Local
Finance Working Group (as established by HB 2261) to
include an analysis of strategies for: a) increasing
K-12 funding through the statewide property tax, b)
reducing reliance on voter-approved maintenance and
operation levies, c) removing levy grandfathering
provisions in current law, and d) providing property
tax relief for property poor districts. These key
questions to be addressed are linked to the
Iseminger Education Funding Plan (which was
unanimously endorsed by the WSSDA Board of Directors
in December). David Iseminger, Lake Stevens School
Director, was on-hand this morning to briefly
explain his Plan and support the bill. Rather than
introduce legislation to fully implement the
Iseminger Education Funding Plan, Rep. Mike Hope
sponsored HB 2746 to drive the discussion on revenue
options, based on the tenets established in
Iseminger’s Plan. We hope this bill will force
legislators to focus on the revenue question for
K-12 education. Sen. Steve Hobbs has introduced a
Senate companion version of the bill,
SB 6740; however, it has not yet been scheduled
for a hearing.
The House Education Committee today held a public
hearing on six bills of interest: HB 2913, HB 2915, HB
3025, HB 2852, HB 2904 and HB 2996.
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HB 2913 would authorize innovative interdistrict
cooperative high school programs. Sponsored by Rep.
Kathy Haigh, the bill would allow nonhigh districts
to establish “Innovation Academies” to provide local
options to their high school age students.
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HB 2915, requested by Superintendent Dorn, would
delay the math and science graduations requirements,
which WSSDA has supported. The bill would also lower
the passing standard of math and science assessments
from the current “Proficiency” level to the “Basic”
level, which WSSDA has opposed.
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HB 3025 would allow an alternative route to a
high school diploma. If a student completed the
minimum course requirements for admission to a
public four-year higher education institution,
attain at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average
in those courses and complete a culminating project
and a high school and beyond plan, they would be
awarded a high school diploma. These students
wouldn’t be required to earn a Certificate of
Academic Achievement or a Certificate of Individual
Achievement.
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HB 2852 would authorize school districts to
claim basic education funding for students enrolled
in college credit-bearing courses offered by public
institutions of higher education.
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HB 2904 would authorize the Office of the
Education Ombudsman to seek and accept public and
private funds and spend them, along with any
associated income, according to their terms and
without appropriation.
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HB 2996 would authorize the same record check
access rules and procedures be used for approved
private schools as are used for school districts,
educational school districts, tribal schools, and
others.
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