HB1410 and SB5444: Victory!

Really good news this week as HB1410 and SB5444, the two bills to completely gut education that I've been worrying about, have been killed in the legislature. There are varying degrees of dead in Olympia, certainly, but it would be a very, very large shock to me to see the old bills come back in any form.

The two bills two watch now are SB6048 and HB2261. These are "intent only" bills that will codify where the legislature wants to go and have real potential to change what we do here on the local level; they're also being built from the ground up (we've gone from a 111 page long bill to 3 pages!) which gives us a chance to talk about the pieces that should go into the bill instead of needing to fight to have things taken out.

To everyone who called or emailed their legislators, thank you! We had more than 20,000 emails sent to Olympia via the Our Voice WEA website, and any time that we can make ourselves heard to that scale it's a powerful sign to our elected officials. Collective action--catch the fever! ;-)

I'll be keeping an eye on the bills, and as always please feel free to ask if you have any questions!

With thanks,

--Ryan--

The Stimulus Will Help Me Sleep Tonight

Speaking to the Association of Washington Businesses the other day Governor Gregoire indicated that most of Washington's share of the education money in the stimulus bill would be used to replace the cuts that she had proposed to levy equalization and I-728 money, which could have been a $1,000,000 blow to our district budget.

More recently an analysis by Schmudget puts additional credence into this theory, and gets into how the money can be spent.

This is still a very fluid situation, even with Obama's signature expected to come within the next couple of days. There's an early budget report presentation being made to the state Senate this Thursday at 4:30, and that'll be a pretty powerful signal as to where the money situation might go.

I'll keep on top of it!

--Ryan--

More on HB1410 and SB5444

Here is a .pdf file from the WEA that succinctly gives the Association objections to the two bills.

Please, keep emailing and keep making those contacts with our legislators--it makes a difference!

--Ryan--

The Big Legislative Project: HB1410 and SB5444

One of the many hats that I wear is as a part of the Member Lobby Team (MLT) and WEA-PAC Chair for WEA-Eastern. What they do in the legislature today is what you're going to end up doing in the classroom tomorrow, and I think that with the state budget situation being what it is it's more important than ever that we communicate with out elected representatives to let them know the reality of the classroom today.

That's why I'm very, very concerned about two pieces of legislation moving through Olympia right now: House Bill 1410 and Senate Bill 5444. They're companion bills, meaning that if you've read one you've read them both, and there are things to like about them. To wit:

*They'd mandate a class size of 15 in grades K through 3!
*Mentoring for teachers!
*Librarians defined as being basic education--no more cuts to library!
*A prototype schools model that would mean BILLIONS more dollars in education spending!

The devil, though, is in the details. I've started maintaining a second blog dedicated only to school politics where I've been running down reasons why I'm deeply troubled by these two bills; a couple that I'll share with you here:

• 1410 and 5444 would eliminate two funding sources, levy equalization and I-728, that together mean hundreds of millions of dollars for schools state wide, and more than 10% of our budget here in Medical Lake. The theory is that the state would kick in more money from somewhere, but the bills don't define where.
  
• Similarly, the certification system would be overhauled--again--into a more "performance based" system to be defined by the Professional Educators Standards Board. As someone who had to do ProCert I'll personally attest to the pain that we went through when the state was trying to figure out how to make it work; here we go again with yet another wholesale change.
  
• The salary schedule would be overhauled. Eventually the extra money for getting a Masters degree would be phased out; instead, to get to the top of the salary schedule, you'd have to get National Board certified. Right now teachers get a hefty additional stipend if they get the certification, and that's as it should be IMO--it was their choice, and now they get to reap the rewards. Making it a mandate, though, is troubling.

Please, go to the Eastern WEAPAC site that I linked to above and read some of the other troubles with the bill. I think this has the very real potential to be a white elephant--it will pass on the promise of additional funding and a glorious new tomorrow, but when the money doesn't come through we'll still be stuck with a new certification system, less rights than we have now, and a weakened profession.

THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIVE IN THE 9TH LD--Rep. Don Cox of the 9th is on the House Education Committee. Please email him and share your thoughts on the bill. For those of you in the 3rd LD--Lisa Brown's district--let her know, too; as Senate Majority Leader she has a lot of sway on where these bills go. For everybody, if you would take the time to send 1 email to a legislator, it will help make a difference.

I'll keep you informed on these bills and the other legislative business as the session goes on.

As always, please call or email if you have any questions.

With thanks,

--Ryan--

For Those Interested in National Board Certification

The first round of NBPTS scholarship applications is being accepted on the OSPI website, here. Applications are due this Friday, February 13th, but there is a second round of scholarships available in March that I'll be able to give you a bit more of a heads-up on.

This subsection of the OSPI website has more information. Also know that you'll need to work with an organizer through one of the local universities (either EWU, Gonzaga, or WSU-Spokane); our guest speaker in November was from Gonzaga's program and is thought well of, but go where your instincts tell you to go.

Please call or email if you have any questions!

--Ryan--

On the Federal Bailout Money

Hi friends,

You may have seen the article in the Spokesman-Review over the weekend on what the Federal Stimulus Package could mean for school districts here in the area; the figure cited for Medical Lake was almost $931,000, which would be stimulating indeed. There are a couple of things to remember, though:

1. That figure above is spread out over two years, weighted more towards year 1 ($574k) than year 2 ($356k).
   
   
2. Right now it's only theoretical money. Some would argue that even after they write the check it's still only theoretical money, but that's an economics argument for another day.
   
   
3. Given the vicissitudes of federal funding, any money coming out of the bailout could still be a long ways off from trickling down to us here in Medical Lake. Consider the Impact Aide money that we're already supposed to get; it's been known to run two years behind schedule.
   
   
4. The stimulus bill passed the House, but it still has to wend its way through the Senate, and then a conference committee, before it can find itself on President Obama's desk.
   
   
5. It's not a blank check. You can read here the allocations that are made to various programs; the first year, for example, provides money for construction, while both years have additional alotments for Title and IDEA spending. That narrows the scope of where the money can go.

There are currently a ton of moving parts to our monetary situation that I'm keeping an eye on right now: the discussion over Governor Gregoire's proposed budget, the next revenue forecast for the state (due out in three weeks), the state Senate budget proposal (by the end of the month), this pot of Federal money, the other pot of money from DC going towards construction projects, along with a couple of different bills in the Legislature that would impact us here at home. If you have any questions about any of it, please feel free to call me--being up-to-date on these issues is what I'm here for!

With thanks,

--Ryan--