Updates from the Washington State Legislature
I found this information from several sources but I again recommend the once a week civics roundup from realtor Sol Villarreal. It helps me to keep up with happenings in Seattle and it's super helpful.
Education Bills and their Status (way too many to list but ones I find would be the most helpful or make me shake my head). Let us know in Comments if you are tracking one I don't have listed.
- SB 5257 would require schools to give elementary students a minimum of 45 minutes of recess per day. It passed out the Senate on Feb. 20th and has a hearing in the House Ed committee on March 1st. Wonder what teachers would think.
- SB 5019 concerns use of wellness funding going to nurses, counselors, social workers, etc and NOT going to school resource officers and other school security staff. Districts that have been using funding for safety officers would likely now not be allowed to do so. Still in committee.
- HB 1479/SB 5559 would ban the use of isolation and several forms of restraint in Washington Schools. This bill would define what those terms mean. This is a huge issue for the Special Education committee. Still in committees.
- HB 1238/SB 5339 would provide free school meals for all students in Washington State; this would include breakfast and lunch. California, Vermont and Massachusetts already have this in place.
- SB 5511 covers a lot of ground in its goal of equity but it would effectively give charter schools access to more funding. Hilariously, it defines the enrollment of "a prototypical" high school as 600, middle school as 432 and elementary as 400. How high schools would be so low and yet elementaries fairly high is a mystery to me.
- HB 1436 would better fund Special Education by not capping the number of students receiving services.
- HB 1305 helps parents to better access Special Education by streamlining the process.
- HB 1109 would allow Special Education applications during summer breaks as well as allow for more funding.
- HB 1210 says that school boards have to have a recording of meetings and in public disclosure requests, the requester MUST provide a range of dates and that would be the ONLY criteria the district would use. (Not keywords, names, etc.) The records must at least be audio and are for meetings where a final vote is taken or formal public testimony accepted. Hmmm
- HJR 4203 would create an election to change the WA State Constitution to allow a simple majority of voters voting to authorize school district bonds. You may remember that levies allow a simple majority but bond measures require a 60% majority. Most capital funding comes from bonds and so you see many districts inability to upgrade buildings due to this issue.
- HB 1228 would support both tribal languages as well as dual language programs.
- HB 1615 supports "an education savings account program." BIG NO. It's a door to vouchers and you don't want this for public education. It's a license to discrimination with public dollars. Same for HB 1093.
- SB 5054 is pretty interesting. It would take four hours a week of instructional time to provide PD for teachers AND provide for "educational activities under the supervision of noncertificated staff." I had just said to the kindergarten teacher I tutor for that I wish the morning was academics and the afternoon was hands-on play learning.
Private schools must not be required to alter their creed,practices, admissions policies, or curricula in order to admit participating students whose parents pay tuition or fees using students first program awards.
One other related story on public education - what is downtown Seattle to become in the new times? More residential seems to be the answer from both Crosscut and KUOW.
Several factors are at play in Salt Lake City, where downtown activity is at 135% of its pre-pandemic level, but project lead Karen Chapple said one of the most important factors is how many residents have moved there. Salt Lake City is on track to double its residential population in the greater downtown area after just a few years.
Crosscut's article quotes the Downtown Seattle Association:
Still, Scholes said, “We need to double down on the investments in the
things that families need. … I do think there needs to be much more
intentionality and focus on playgrounds, recreation, child care,
schools, all of those things that we know people need in order to live
and be in an urban place like this.”
And in the public education funny of the day, Florida's department of education put out a list of approved books. They misspelled both ninth and twelfth.
You do you, Florida.
Comments
Our kids get 2 recesses a day (we recently moved so not in Seattle but I still follow your blog.) For the shorter one, they apparently typically do not go outside in winter, since 20 minutes is just too short for everyone to get snow gear on and off. My kid reports playing a sort of computer game instead, which I really dislike. Brain break, but not movement, which is what he needs.
So, beware of how recess is defined.
Buried
I think all the Special Ed funding stuff is cover for the budgeting holes that are approaching. SpEd is expensive and a potentially bottomless fund that districts can press Olympia for and then Olympia can press EC for. It's the old unfunded mandates shell game.
This will allow the Democrats in power in both DC and Olympia to pay off their union donors and reward them for their votes in 2020. It will also keep the districts at full employment, which will keep the donor dollars flowing.
Special Ed also affects wealthy white families, so it will generate political momentum too.
Those who are interested in financial responsibility in school districts would do well to support the bill that caps the percentage of students receiving special ed services. Otherwise, the districts can qualify a lot of 504 students up to IEPs.
WEA and SEA showed their strategy in this past fall's strike. You'll notice that the reason on the face of the strike was special education funding, but somehow, the teachers all got a good raise. Look for more of the same.
SP
Buried, to be honest, I have heard nothing about SPS in the legislative talk. Many members outside of Seattle have nothing but contempt for SPS so I think for members of the Seattle delegation, it's gonna be a tough sale.
That said, help SPS or let the state super do it? Interesting question for the legislature. Because I think if the legislature does nothing, OSPI might take over or call SPS' bluff (which I think is entirely possible).
I don’t think there is any political will to help SPS specifically, but actions like increasing the SpEd multiplier would help all districts, and by extension, reduce the SPS budget hole, a little. There may be other opportunities for chipping away at it, like transportation money. I do t think SPS should get any kind of blank check from the legislature.
Buried
Per this topic, there was this interview with Superintendent Chris Reykdal in the Times today.
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/state-schools-leader-says-wa-isnt-doing-enough-to-fund-education/
Statements of interest:
"We know there’s a demographic change coming to our state, and to our whole country, with a declining birthrate. With the COVID pandemic and the subsequent loss of enrollment, imagine the clock just sped up a decade. We’re down to [enrollment] levels we thought we’d see in about 10 years, which is 1.06 million students."
"What happens when a district is in financial distress? Does the state step in to prop up it up?
It hasn’t happened since I’ve been here, but apparently there’s a manual. We’re a long way away from OSPI [Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction] being involved, because their first step is to take local action. [The school districts] work with their Educational Service Districts, and the ESD has some role in helping them guide their finances … helping them navigate how to concentrate the resources they have on the basic [education] work and not do any reductions to core basic services. We’re already preparing ourselves for the next year or two. … I don’t think there’s ever a state takeover scenario; it’s: “How directive does the state have to be on the resources they do have?”
"Rural districts haven’t seen the declines, and they don’t have the option [to close schools]. I don’t think it’s an immediate worry for parents. Mostly, [my advice is]: Tune in to your district. Understand their particular budget conditions and follow along."
"I look at it as how much are we spending [on K-12] as a share of the economy, and we put in 3.1% [of state gross domestic product] back into our public schools, and the national average is 3.6%."
Tell me more about the 3.1%. How do you arrive at that figure?
"This comes out of Rutgers University. They have had an education finance think tank there for a very long time. [The report is called Making the Grade: How fair is school funding in your state?] They plug in all of these numbers. They look at GDP. It’s called an effort index: How much effort is the state putting in."
"At one point K-12 accounted for 51% of the general fund, but you say this year it will likely make up less — about 42-44% of the budget. That’s still a lot of money.
It’s all relative, isn’t it? What is the legal obligation in your given state? And in our state, education is the paramount duty. … The state has built an entire legal structure around their obligation. And I’d say they’re doing a better job today than they were 10 years ago. But it’s tough to hear that our state continues to grow so much in terms of revenue — at least in the short term — and then have a declining share of that going into public schools."