Monday: The House Judiciary committee voted the same-sex marriage legislation out of committee. A Senate committee heard a bill that would tighten up ethical rules for public employees, prompted by a case last year of an ethics claim against a Department of Corrections administrator who worked on behalf of nonprofit groups on state time. And a bipartisan group of 42 Washington state lawmakers sent a letter to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration asking for marijuana to be reclassified so it can be prescribed as a medicine by doctors and filled in pharmacies..

Watch Monday’s Legislative Review.

Tuesday: The House Labor committee on heard five bills related to the minimum wage, including one that would lower the base wage of tipped employees and another that would pay a lower “training wage.” The Senate Higher Education committee considered a bill that would prohibit state money from going to college athletics. And a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked that the state fund K-12 education separately from the rest of the budget.

Watch Tuesday’s Legislative Review.

Wednesday: In a late night floor session, the state Senate voted 28-21 to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. We have full video and a photo gallery from the event. On the show, we covered the redistricting plan as it took a first big step forward, and legislation that would allow schools to have classes separated by gender.

Watch Wednesday’s Legislative Review.

Thursday: House Republicans offered details on a plan that would create a separate K-12 education budget. Also, lawmakers considered stricter rules for spraying pesticides on farmland.

Watch Thursday’s Legislative Review.

Friday: Today is the cutoff day for non-budget policy bills to be considered in committee. Catch tonight’s half-hour edition of Legislative Review recapping the week’s events at 6:30 and 11 p.m. on TVW.

Tags: education, same-sex marriage

Less than hour after the House Republicans unveiled their stand-alone education budget proposal, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown dismissed it as “more symbolism than substance.” Brown was responding to a reporter’s question at her weekly media availability. She said the state has a responsibility to fund not only basic education, but also a “broad spectrum” of programs from early learning to natural resources. The House Republican education budget would shave $46 million from education, leaving most of the $1.5 billion in likely cuts to come from other programs. Brown said “if you fund education first and pretend there aren’t tradeoffs, I think that’s a bait-and-switch.”

On transportation funding, Brown said the governor’s proposal to charge $1.50 per barrel of oil has “rolled away” and indicated transportation leaders are working on a smaller funding package through a number of fees.  On a question about possible threats from Wednesday night’s same-sex marriage vote, she said lawmakers get harassed over all sorts of issues.  She wasn’t aware of any threats that required police involvement.

Tags: education, same-sex marriage

The state just got a report card from the Supreme Court, Rep. Bruce Dammeier said, and it’s not good: “We got an F” on fulfilling the state’s paramount duty, funding basic education. He said House Republicans intend to break the cycle of under-funding education.

“Today, we’re going to offer to the legislature House Bill 2770. This bill is our education budget,” he said, adding that the proposal would gett the state back on the path of delivering on promises made to the state’s children.

“This is all about what dollars do you spend first,” said Rep. Charles Ross. “The number one fear amongst, I think, taxpayers is they don’t know what we’re doing … and today is the day that the House Republicans stand up” for education, he said.

Some of the highlights, according to Dammeier:

- Puts $580 million more toward education than Gov. Chris Gregoire’s all-cuts budget

- Does not cut any days from the school year; Gregoire proposed cutting four days

- Fully funds levy equalization; Gregoire proposed cuts

- Does not rely on a late payment, as Gregoire’s proposal does

He said their bill also gives local school districts the ability to make decisions about their local budgets. (more…)

Tags: education, House Republicans

House Republicans have called for state lawmakers to pass a separate K-12 budget that would fund schools before the rest of the operating budget. They will discuss details of that plan, as well as a proposed K-12 education budget, in a news conference Thursday at noon.

The House Education Appropriations and Oversight Committee held a public hearing on Tuesday on the bill that would require the Legislature to pass a separate K-12 education budget. You can read a full Q & A with the bill’s prime sponsor Rep. Bruce Dammeier about education funding on our blog.

Tags: education, K-12, Republicans

We’ve got today’s headlines, from bills to change minimum wage law to education funding reform.

Tags: athletics, education, Higher Education, K-12, minimum wage

This morning the Senate Health and Long-Term Care committee heard details about an overhaul of the healthcare benefit system for nearly 200,000 public school employees.

The proposal would consolidate the healthcare plans of 295 school districts, and include medical, dental and vision. Life insurance and long-term disability would be left to the individual school districts.

The plan could save the state an estimated about 1-2 percent of the current billion dollars that is currently spent on public school employee benefits, according to a report by the Health Care Authority.

Sen. Steve Conway said that although the cost savings was important, that’s not the only issue at hand. “What we’re trying to do is get a good product to the people who work in the school districts,” Conway said.

Randy Parr of the Washington Education Association said that they oppose any plan that would give a government board power over employee healthcare plans.

“This is a genuinely seriously subject and you are talking about 200,000 lives,” Parr said. “I hope you understand the importance and magnitude of decisions” that could affect people’s healthcare coverage, premiums and choice of doctors, Parr added.

Tags: benefits, education, healthcare, Schools

Gov. Chris Gregoire will be delivering her State of the State address at 10:15 a.m. in a joint session, immediately followed by the Republican response. TVW will be live with both speeches — and live blogging here, too.

We’ll also be following the 1:30 p.m. education hearing in the House, where they’ll be discussing the recent Supreme Court decision that said that the state isn’t doing its duty to fully fund education. They’ll also be looking at innovation in schools. Catch the full recap of today’s events on tonight’s edition of Legislative Review at 6:30 p.m. on TVW.

At 3:30, we’re watching the House Transportation Committee. They’re scheduled to hold a work session on the governor’s supplemental transportation budget.

Tags: education, Gov. Gregoire, supreme court, WA House

The Senate is now debating the education reform bill, which would change the first-teacher-in, last-teacher-out rule.

Sen. Rodney Tom referenced the documentary, “Waiting for Superman.” He said in the movie, there’s something called “dance of the lemons” — the practice of rotating ineffective teachers to different districts instead of laying them off. He said this bill could change that.

“If we want good schools, we’ve got to put our money where our mouth is,” said Sen. Lisa Brown. She said it’s too bad that the biggest education bill this session is about how to lay off teachers — not how to prevent layoffs.

Sen. Pam Roach said it’s parents’ responsibility to make sure their children are educated. “Today, when we have both parents working and sometimes a lot of people that don’t even have two parents … if we just alert parents,” she said, that they don’t have much time to raise their children right, they might be more likely to spend time at home making sure their children are well educated. “It’s getting so bad these days that we need to be looking at something fresh and new.”

“I think it raises a critical issue that hasn’t been raised yet, that is the local control issue,” said Sen. Steve Conway. “My school district, Tacoma, they’re involved in addressing these same issues through their collective bargaining process.” He said everyone wants the best education. “I just think this is a knee-jerk reaction,” he said. “Here we are, once again, the Legislature mandating a premise that would best be handled” by the collective bargaining process and the local districts.

Sen. Kevin Ranker said school districts were only recently asked to develop a four-tier rating program for teachers. He said the schools aren’t even done yet — so he said it doesn’t make sense to ask school districts to then tie Reductions in Force — also known as RIFs or layoffs — to performance evaluations that don’t yet exist.

“The plain fact is, if ratings matter … then we need to make the policy choice that connects them,” said Sen. Phil Rockefeller.

The Senate passed the bill 30 to 17.

Tags: education, education reform

The Senate Early Learning Committee is holding a public hearing now on Gov. Chris Gregoire’s idea for a preschool-to-Ph.D education system — or state education council.

“This is legislation that will impact and will engage all 83,000 of the members we work with,” said Lucinda Young, with the Washington Education Association. She said one of the largest hurdles facing the state is underfunding for K-12. She said her group supports the striking bill. “We have to all be vigilant, we have to all be involved,” she said, “if we want to continue  to improve student achievement.”

Watch live on TVW now.

Tags: education, preschool to Ph.D

Transportation, education and the future of the GET program:

Tags: education, GET, Legislative Review, transportation budget, tuition