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On Thursday, committees in both houses continued to
discuss education reform related legislation, along with
other bills. This morning the Senate Early Learning &
K-12 Education Committee held a public hearing on five
bills: SB 6761, SB 6760, SB 6629, SB 6604 and SB 6620.
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SB 6761 would implement a series of
recommendations from the
Quality Education Council. Each of the
recommendations of the QEC would be implemented,
except for those addressing the details and
enhancements of the baseline values of the
prototypical school funding formula, and the
recommendation addressing the program of early
learning.
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SB 6760 would replace the current education
funding formulas with the new prototypical school
funding formulas using the baseline values as
determined by the Funding Formula Technical Working
Group, except the Maintenance, Supplies, and
Operating Costs (MSOC, formerly Non-Employee Related
Costs or NERC). MSOC values in the bill are based on
data collected by OSPI about costs incurred by
school districts, which makes them higher than the
current or baseline values.
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SB 6629 would convene a working group to make
recommendations defining a basic education program
for highly capable students.
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SB 6604 would provide school districts with
additional flexibility by repealing, suspending or
amending a series of unfunded mandates. Included in
this bill is language (Sections 22 and 23) that
would change the membership structure of the
Washington State School Directors’ Association by
amending current law provisions which provide for
automatic membership in WSSDA.
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SB 6620 would provide schools and school
districts recognized as being successful with
flexibility as a reward.
This afternoon, the House Education Appropriations
Committee continued its public hearing from earlier in
the week on
HB 2776. HB 2776 would adopt new funding
distribution formulas for K-12 education. This
QEC-related bill would begin the implementation of last
year’s HB 2261 (Basic Education finance reform) by
attaching numerical values to allocations in the
prototypical school funding formula. The Committee was
also scheduled to take executive action on bills heard
earlier in the week; however, Committee members went to
their respective caucuses to review potential amendments
and never returned. The bills scheduled were:
HB 2759 (online learning finance),
HB 2893 (levy provisions),
HB 2840 (levy-funded employee costs),
HB 2746 (K-12 education revenues) and HB 2776 (K-12
funding formulas).
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