|
On Tuesday, the last day for House policy committees
to adopt House bills and keep them alive (Friday, Feb. 5
is the last day for Senate policy committees to adopt
Senate bills), multiple committees held lengthy meetings
with full agendas. This morning, the House Education
Committee held a public hearing on one bill,
HJM 4002, which would request Congress to include
health and fitness as a core academic subject in the
reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The Committee then moved to executive session and
adopted the Memorial, along with 16 other bills. The
major bills adopted were the three “Race To The Top”
(RTTT) bills:
HB 3059,
HB 3035 and
HB 3038. Prior to voting on the bills, Rep. Pat
Sullivan expressed his reservations about the bills. He
said the governor and others have had a major focus on
policy issues that will allow Washington to capture RTTT
points, but there has not been enough attention or
commitment to move the state forward on basic education
finance reform, as adopted in HB 2261 last session. He
reminded his colleagues that last session he informed
stakeholders that he would not support efforts to place
additional burdens on school districts unless funding
followed. He firmly stated that he believed all three of
these bills should be rejected to “send the message that
until the state deals with education finance reform, we
[the House] won’t support these bills.” His passionate
comments should be applauded; however, they had little
effect on his Committee colleagues. HB 3059 (educator
preparation) and HB 3025 (educator performance) were
adopted with a vote of 10-3, with Reps. Sullivan, Hunt
and Liias voting “No.” HB 3038 (education
accountability) was adopted with a vote of 11-2, with
Reps. Sullivan and Liias voting “No.”
The House Education Committee also adopted the
following bills:
-
HB 2904 – Office of the Education Ombudsman
-
HB 2996 – Record check information rules for
private schools
-
HB 1697 – Career and technical student
organizations
-
HB 3068 – Recruiting Washington Teachers Program
-
HB 2913 - Innovative high school programs
-
HB 2580 – Secondary career and technical
education
-
HB 2654 – Elementary math specialists
-
HB 2852 – College-level online learning
-
HB 3036 – Nonvoter-approved debt
-
HB 3029 – Education for juveniles in adult jails
-
HB 3025 – Alternative high school diploma routes
-
HB 2834 – Gang activity at schools
-
HB 2915 – Mathematics and science graduation
requirements
-
HB 3026 – School district compliance with civil
rights laws
The House Education Appropriations Committee also met
this morning to take action on bills. Of major
importance was the adoption of
HB 2893, the bill to increase levy lids by four
percent, increase Local Effort Assistance by two
percent, and restore school district levy bases. A
striking amendment was introduced and adopted today
which includes several technical corrections and a major
policy decision. A “reverse severability” clause was
added to the bill, which declares that each section of
the bill represents a comprehensive plan for addressing
school levy laws such that if any section passed by the
Legislature is invalidated or not signed into law, or if
OSPI does not certify that full funding has been
appropriated for the LEA rates in the bill, the entire
act is null and void.
|
