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 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--

A Political FYI....

Joel Kretz, one of the members of the State House from the 7th Legislative District (everything north of Medical Lake, stretching all the way up to the Canadian border) was recently elected the Deputy Minority Leader for the House Republican Caucus. I met with Rep. Kretz on a couple of different occasions when I went back to Olympia last year; he's a good listener when it comes to education issues, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee he's also in an important position when it comes to the discussion on education funding.

Given that a good part of the Medical Lake SD lies within the 7th Legislative District, I'm optimistic that he'll continue to listen to us in his new position.

It's a Busy Time in the World of Education

Busier than you'd think, given the time of year, but the floodgates really opened right after the election, as noted by one member:

I am completely baffled. Since the results of the election, there has been regular negative news in the Spokesman starting with auditor suggesting an overhaul of the education system with specific details and suggestions. Today, district expense accounts are under scrutiny. I've already forgotten the third one I saw. Has WEA said anything about all this coming now? Was Bergeson hiding this or protecting us from this negative publicity? Is there more you hear coming down the pipe? Do you know how this kind of investigation has been funded or who has been asking for it?

And I'll share with you all the answer I shared with the member: we live in interesting times.

Well, we live in interesting times. :-)

Basic Ed Finance Task Force: This was the front page article about the commission lead by Dan Grimm. Last year the big discussion was about the Washington Learns commission that Governor Gregoire made to look at education in the state; Washington Learns didn't really accomplish anything except to punt to the Basic Ed Task Force and tell them to study things more. Pretty useless, really.

Dan's made it pretty clear that he's no fan of unions. Under his proposal collective bargaining would be done at the state level, there would be no per diem (because in his world, having per diem in some districts is unfair to those districts that don't have any), and salary would be differentiated based on different areas of the state, not on degrees or years of experience.

The WEA has presented to his task force a couple different times in conjunction with the Principals and the School Administrators. Every proposal--every single one--has a price tag of at least a billion dollars; the WEA proposal alone would require about $2.5 billion in new spending. I don't think that any of them have any chance of succeeding, because of the big budget hole we're already facing.

It's something to keep an eye on, though, because Dan Grimm is a pretty dynamic guy and if he can convince the legislature to take money from one area (the carve out, per diem, what have you) and put it somewhere else, that could be dangerous for us.

The State Auditor: A couple of years ago initiative something-or-another passed, mandating that the Auditors Office do more performance audits of state spending. Brian Sonntag, the state auditor, immediately took a look at the schools, because we're the biggest piece of the pie. Last summer they released a 400+ page audit of all the ESD offices around the state, last month they released their audit of the 10 largest school districts in the state (Spokane included), and this week it's the audit of travel practices at those 10 large districts + OSPI.

It's an interesting piece, because if the audit had come out before the election it would have been even worse for Dr. Bergeson; there are tens of thousands of dollars of waste identified from her office alone, including 400+ hotel rooms reserved for a conference that weren't used but that OSPI had to pay for anyhow.

What's Coming? Next month Governor Gregoire will release her proposed budget, which is almost certainly going to include some cuts to education. The big number there will be to see if she proposed a COLA for teachers at all or puts it on hold; I'm willing to bet the chance of us getting the COLA this year is slim to none. For a preview of what could be cut check out this website...

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/budget/pog/finalreport2009-11.asp

...from the state Office of Financial Management, wherein they talk about the things that should be funded and the things they think should be cut to make this coming budget balance. There are a lot of good ideas that are going to go away.

This Year's COLA, and Next Year's COLA

Hello again, MLEA members.

This post to the blog may be a little wonky, but it also has a direct impact on your paycheck.

First, at the end of September you'll be seeing the beginning of an all-time pay increase as teacher salaries go up 5.1% 3.9% of that is because of the I-728 COLA; .7% is because of the COLA suspension from 2003 and 2004; and .5% is "equalization" to bring the state salary schedule in line with what some of the larger districts are able to pay.

That's the good news. The thing to keep an eye on will be what happens in the legislature regarding next year's COLA. To wit:

1) Forbes Magazine says that Seattle has the highest inflation in the country, and that's the number our COLA is based off of. From the article:

If you live in Seattle, it might be time to ask for a cost of living increase. The city has the highest inflation rate in the country.

"Seattle household income is fairly high, and that helps to maintain a high rate of inflation since higher income areas can afford price increases," says Steve Cochrane, an economist with Moody's Economy.com. "Some of it is fuel, but housing prices have also been more stable than anywhere else on the West Coast, which adds to inflation."

Normally, Seattle's 3.7% unemployment rate, well under the national average of 5.5%, would be a good thing. But a growing economy with low unemployment drives up wages and costs. The Emerald City's consumer prices are up 5.8% from this time last year, which ties for the highest inflation rate in the country with Dallas, where high energy costs for home cooling and driving are eating up incomes.

2) Similarly, Olympia Business Watch has the numbers on the national inflation statistics, which are equally high.

It will be an interesting process to watch when the Legislature goes back in January.