In this week’s show, which you can watch at 6:30 on TVW, we covered a dozen or so of the week’s biggest topics in the Legislature. If you need more information once you’ve watched the show, look no further.

Budget: Once again, the budget is our top story. The House passed its version last week and sent it to the Senate. Instead of passing that bill, a bipartisan group in the Senate drafted their own version and, by today, passed that off the floor. Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget director had previously said she needed a budget on her desk by today in order for maximum savings to go into effect.

Unemployment rate decrease: This bill would reduce employers’ unemployment insurance rate – saving businesses $300 million this year. But in order for that savings to go into effect, the bill has to make it to the governor’s desk by Tuesday. This proposal also allows the federal government to continue paying extended unemployment benefits. Though it passed the Senate, it had a snag earlier in the week.

Fraud: Lawmakers are looking at reducing fraud to boost the bottom line. One bill would go specifically after Medicaid. Another bill, which had its first hearing today, would include all government fraud and give cash awards to whistleblowers.

Heart attacks: Police officers and firefighters told lawmakers this week that the adrenaline they experience on a daily basis increases their risk for heart attack and stroke. For that reason, they’re asking for those conditions to be considered work-related illnesses – in some cases.

Capital budget: The Great Recession isn’t just affecting the operating budget – with reduced bonding capacity, the capital budget is also smaller. This week, schools, ports and others told lawmakers what will happen if they don’t get funding.

Red light cameras: Cities and towns like red light cameras because they make people think twice about breaking the law – and they bring in some money. But lawmakers in the House looked at regulating cameras via several bills this week. One would outlaw the cameras, while others would give voters more say. Here’s one bill, and another, and another. And this one.

Department of Corrections: After an officer was strangled last weekend, the Department of Corrections is reviewing its policies. We have the story about the governor’s response, and you can read more about the department’s next steps here.

Dorn reshuffle: Gov. Chris Gregoire wants to restructure the way education is administered – starting with the state schools chief position. Her proposal, which Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn opposes, got a hearing this week.

Social emotional learning: Some education advocates say if students learned more about their emotions, they’d do better in school. But in a hearing on the bill this week, some parents worried that the curriculum may not match up with their own values, or that it would take time away from more critical lesson plans.

Online university: Sen. Jim Kastama wants to establish a public online university. The proposal had a hearing this week and we’ve got the details.

Tags: Budget, capital budget, department of corrections, Dorn, education, fraud, online university, OSPI, police, red light cameras, unemployment

Here’s this week’s edition of The Impact, with Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and schools chief Randy Dorn.

Tags: Budget, Chopp, Dorn, education, The Impact

State schools superintendent Randy Dorn sent a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire asking her to veto a section of the budget. Read the whole letter below.

The segment he wants her to veto the section that would set aside $250,000 for a committee that would look at how to reorganize the state’s school districts.

Dorn’s letter says that the new commission would have powers that overlap existing regional boards, that there isn’t enough money budgeted for such an effort, and that creating a new commission goes against the Legislature’s efforts to shut down and defund most boards and commissions.

Here’s Dorn’s veto letter to Gregoire.

Tags: consolidation, Dorn, Gregoire, school district, Schools

The Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee is hearing from state schools superintendent Randy Dorn about federal Race to the Top money.

“One of the things that is tackled in Race to the Top is the achievement gap,” he said. The good news: He said in about a week they’ll announce that the achievement gap in Washington “might be getting a little bit smaller” and the dropout rate might be in the same boat. The most current dropout rate is about 28 percent, he said.

One of the challenges of Washington’s education system, Dorn said, is that math and science performance is low.

On Race to the Top: The program, created by the Obama administration, creates a competition out of improving the education system. In a video played by Dorn, Obama said “the states who outperform the rest will be rewarded with a grant” — and not everyone will get funding.

The state could get up to $250 million in Race to the Top money, according to Judy Hartman, a policy advisor for Gov. Gregoire. The next application is due June 1. (The first application deadline is tomorrow and the state isn’t applying because Hartmann said the state didn’t meet enough criteria.)

Tags: Dorn, education, Race to the Top

Randy Dorn said he thinks the state is doing a good job with “the students who stick with us for 12 years.” But: “What are we going to do with the students who don’t make it?” He said the state needs to do more to keep students in school.

He said there’s even more work to be done: Students who graduate from Washington schools with a good SAT score and grade point average are still dropping out of University of Washington at a high rate after two years, he said. Those are all things the state should look into.

Go here for more information on the WASL results.

Tags: Dorn, WASL

Now state schools superintendent Randy Dorn is back up.

He said the WASL hasn’t gotten easier and won’t, but that the new standards will allow the state to go much deeper into understanding why students are failing the test.

“The one thing I want people to understand is we plateau,” he said. “I want people to understand that.”

He said the state’s done a good job with the top third of students. The second third was helped along by a statewide push. The bottom third, he said, is going to take more time and more money.

Tags: Dorn, WASL

State Schools Superintendent Randy Dorn is up at the WASL press conference: “Although this is a WASL release, it also has a lot to do with AYP… I really have a view about AYP and it’s basically that it’s going to give you the impression that we have way more schools that need improvement … actually, that’s not true,” he said. He said the schools in that category are getting better faster.

“The federal government is actually failing us in the actual law of No Child Left Behind,” he said, adding that it undermines the confidence in public education. “We have actually done a very good job. I have always had a firm belief in my life that you get a lot more out of people with encouragement and incentives rather than punishment, and that’s what AYP does: Punishment.”

You can watch the press conference LIVE at TVW.org now.

“We need to move forward on what I call ‘Reform 2,’” Dorn said. He said that includes resources and “more diagnostic information to teachers.”

“The last press conference that we held was on the WASL and I’ve heard many people say and it’s been talked about: Is it going to be a different assessment? Absolutely,” he said. Dorn said the WASL will not be given again. Now, it’s called “Measures of Student Progress,” or MSP. “I want to be real clear, high school students will still have to take an assessment, it will still be a graduation requirement.”

Tags: Dorn, WASL

Randy Dorn’s appearance before the House Education Committee — to explain his proposal to kick the WASL to the curb — finished up about early this afternoon.

During the hearing, he elaborated on his plans and why they were necessary. He also said cooperation with the Legislature was important — a slightly different message than his press conference last week, where he said he had the power to scrap the test.

I’m going over everything now. In the meantime, here’s one tidbit I found interesting: Dorn said the state shuffles around 700,000 test booklets for the WASL every year. With computer testing, that huge amount of paper vanishes. He said Oregon has recently scrapped paper-based testing, and he’s had conversations with them about it.

Watch the video here.

Tags: Dorn, education, WASL

Dorn’s proposal to replace the WASL includes a provision that the test is administered twice a year. That’s only half the story: Students who pass in the fall won’t have to retake the test in spring.

I talked to Nathan Olson, media relations manager for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, about it. He confirmed that the test is like a check-up: Pass every year on the first try, and you’ll take the WASL seven times (once in 3-8 grades, once in 10th grade.)

However, if every fall a student does poorly, they can take the test in spring with the hopes of passing.

One thing: “Fail” and “pass” are another can of worms. Let’s just say “proficient” and “not proficient.”

Tags: Dorn, WASL

People are talking quite a bit about whether Dorn has the authority to making sweeping changes to the WASL without consulting the Legislature.

Here is the Code (28A.655.070) that Dorn’s office is quoting:

(3) (b) Effective with the 2009 administration of the Washington assessment of student learning, the superintendent shall redesign the assessment in the content areas of reading, mathematics, and science in all grades except high school by shortening test administration and reducing the number of short answer and extended response questions.

Well, that settles it, right? No. (more…)

Tags: Dorn, WASL