The bill that Rep. Hans Dunshee introduced last year that would issue $861 million in bonds, then use the money to make schools more energy efficient (and, in the process, create jobs around the state) is up for debate in the House this morning.

Check back here for more on the debate — right now, lawmakers are in caucus discussing amendments, but they’ll be back soon.

Tags: bonds, Schools, weatherization

Randy Dorn, state schools superintendent, will deliver a “major policy speech” about math and science requirements for high school graduation on Thursday at a gathering of school superintendents.

The speech will be available at tvw.org on Friday afternoon, and will be played on Friday evening at 7 and 10 p.m.

Tags: graduation requirement, Schools

We’re focusing on education in this week’s Impact show, when we’ll be recapping segments of our special report, The Quest for Quality: The Debate Over Education Reform & Funding.  Joining us on-set: state Representative Kelli Linville, Chair of the House Budget committee and state Senator Curtis King, ranking minority member of the Senate’s Early Learning and K-12 Education committee.  Given the current revenue forecast, lawmakers may need to cut an additional $1 billion from the supplemental budget when they return in January. Representative Linville says she is beginning talks with members of the budget committee regarding their options for crafting a supplemental budget. She says a targeted tax to fund specific education proposals in the Basic Education Finance Law could go to voters.

Also on the program:  Washington State Parent Teacher Association Executive Director Bill Williams and League of Education Voters Legislative Director George Scarola.  Both say they hope to see the legislature begin the process of funding the Basic Education Finance Law next session.

In another segment, we’ll outline proposals released this week by the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board to stablize funding for Washington’s public colleges.  It includes a new tuition policy proposal for state universities.

Don’t miss The Impact, tonight at 7pm on TVW and anytime online: tvw.org.

Tags: education, Higher Education, Schools, The Impact, The Quest for Quality, tuition policy

Dept. of Health Secretary Mary Selecky and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn joined Austin Jenkins today at the TVW studio and broke in the new “Inside Olympia” set — looks sharp.  Watch both interviews tonight at 7 & 10 p.m.

Selecky said the swine flu doesn’t do what we expect in a flu in that it targets primarily young people.  People born before 1957 might have some immunity to the swine flu, as this breed of flu also made an appearance during the 50s.  Said while hand-washing and other prevention measures aren’t foolproof they do help, and people are paying attention: restrooms at WSU report being out of hand soap.

Randy Dorn talked about the Kent teachers’ strike, education funding, achievement gap and dropouts.  Said the first step in increasing ed funding may be the state paying for student transportation, which he’d like the 2010 legislature to address to take the pressure off local levies.  Also said his 4-year goal is a 3-5% decrease in the state’s dropout rate, currently estimated at 25-35%.

Tags: education, health, mary selecky, randy dorn, Schools, swine flu

Jennifer Huntley, host of The Impact, sent this in about tonight’s show:

Three to four billion dollars of the federal stimulus money is being used in Washington state for Medicaid, K-12 education, higher education, and corrections. We’ll find out more about how the state is spending its share of the money. Joining us will be the Governor’s Chief of Staff Cindy Zehnder and Jill Satran, the Governor’s Executive Policy Advisor in charge of the federal stimulus.

Also, Gov. Chris Gregoire issued an executive order on climate change this past week. It directs the Department of Ecology to work with industries to cut emissions by 2020. Ecology Director Jay Manning says Washington state must lead on this issue so that the rest of the world will follow. We’ll find out more about what is in the order and how the Department of Ecology plans to carry it out.

Watch The Impact, tonight at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on TVW or anytime online at tvw.org.

Tags: climate change, federal stimulus, Schools, The Impact

Washington schools will get $672 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — aka the federal stimulus package — $331 million will be available this fall, according to a release sent out by the U.S. Secretary of Education, Anne Duncan. That dwarfs the $194 million the state has received for education from the stimulus package so far.

The state plans to use all of the money in 2009 for elementary and secondary schools. In 2010, they’ll use most for elementary and secondary schools and about $100 million for public institutions of higher education.

According to the announcement, the additional funding comes after successfully completing the first portion of the state application.

“The $672 million Washington will receive today is part of the single largest boost in education funding in recent history,” Duncan said in the release. She said the state can use the money to “save jobs and lay the groundwork for a generation of education reform.”

To get the money, the state had to make a few promises. Gov. Chris Gregoire and state schools superintendent Randy Dorn signed the application, which you can read here, promising that they’d hold funding for elementary education at 2006 levels or above through fiscal year 2011. In 2006, the state spent $5.4 billion on education. In 2009, the budget is $6.5 billion — so education would have to get cut quite a bit to fall to 2006 levels.

They also pledged to “collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.” And they must report back on how many jobs are saved by the boost and/or the amount of tax increases avoided.

One interesting thing about the application: Included in it (Attachment A, Section 4) is a program Gregoire ended up vetoing. The program would have directed funding to low-income areas for all-day kindergarten. She said at the time of the veto that all children deserved all-day kindergarten.

There’s also a part at the end that I don’t quite understand — it looks like some of the money for higher education may go toward reducing the tuition increase… Stay tuned.

Tags: cuts, federal stimulus, Gregoire, Schools

The Senate just voted to pass SB 6096 29 to 19 after Lt. Gov. Brad Owen ruled that it does not constitute a tax increase — but rather a clarification of the law — under I-960.

The House, meanwhile, is still debating the bill on school levies. Follow along live on TVW or at tvw.org.

Tags: Budget, Schools, taxes

Rep. Hans Dunshee’s plan to send a $3 billion school (and other public building) improvement bond to voters is having its first public hearing now in the House Capital Budget Committee.

One woman who just spoke told lawmakers to, “Do something, damn it.” She referenced poor air quality in schools and a child who had to use a respirator after being exposed to a solvent at school.

Rep. Maralyn Chase held up a bottle of yellow, dingy water. She said it came from the pipes at her grandson’s school, and that she was appalled at it. She said it’s taken a while, but that this bill is progress.

Rep. Norma Smith said she doesn’t think there’s any doubt about the needs for schools to be updated. But, she said, the state treasurer is warning that $3 billion in bonds could damage the state’s rating.

And Rep. Chase just said it’s “no secret that our prisons are in better shape than our public schools.”

Tags: Budget, Schools

State Treasurer Jim McIntire sent out a news release just after Rep. Hans Dunshee announced a plan to finance public building construction with $3 billion in bonds (see below).

Here’s what McIntire had to say: “We need to live within our means. Though we clearly have significant capital needs at our schools and universities, borrowed money is a limited resource that should be managed carefully.”

McIntire said $3 billion is too much and that it would threaten the state’s credit rating. The current budget considerations would put the state close to its debt limit, according ot McIntire.

Tags: bond, Budget, Schools

Right now, Rep. Hans Dunhee and others are announcing HB 2334, the “Washington Works Act.” It’s Dunshee’s plan for putting a $3 billion bond to a vote. The money would go toward school construction, among other things.

“Investments in energy efficiency are really going to provide a win-win outcome,” said Stan Price, from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council. “As we make these kinds of investments in energy efficiency and reduce those (operating) costs over time,” Price said, the public wins — the money that was once spent on heating or cooling buildings can now be spent on something else.

One mother and one teacher at a public school have also spoken. The mother held up photos of a dilapidated school and said, “This is what deferred maintenance looks like.” The teacher said she became sick from the air in the school. “This is the most exciting day I’ve had in years,” she said, of the bill unveiling. “We are really hampering our students,” she said.

“This is the WPA of its time. We’re going to fix schools, we’re going to create jobs” and get the economy on track, Dunshee said.

Dunshee was asked how the bond would be repaid. He said there’s a lot left to be sorted out, including funding. He also said the bond raters — “the same people who told us Lehman Brothers was a good buy … that AIG was a good buy,” are the ones who are a “little shaky” on the bond. He said they’ve suggested it could drop the state’s bond rating. But, he said, “we need to create jobs.”

Tags: Budget, Schools