The Senate passed the kindergarten readiness assessment bill 31-15. The bill would apply to schools that receive state funds for all-day kindergarten, and would require those schools to use the assessment beginning in the 2012-13 school year if funding is available.
Speaking in support of her bill, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, talked about the good work going on with the pilot programs on kindergarten assessments, and how this helps teachers be more prepared and students be more successful.
Senate Republican budget leader Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, suggested that this wasn’t the time to be adding new programs, and that the estimated $3 million a biennium would be better spent on ECEAP (an early learning program for low-income children) or held to blunt cuts to the K-12 funding box.
He was joined in similar opposition to the bill by Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, and Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville. The senators objected to adding laws when funding isn’t available, and Schoesler brought up the K-4 enhancement cuts sustained in the supplemental budget. "If we can't fund K-4, then we can't afford this," he said.
However, some of the members speaking in favor of the bill (Sens. Steve Litzow, R- Mercer Island, Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue, Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, and Paull Shin, D-Mukilteo) said this was the right time to do the bill and that it was necessary.
Arguments in support were that the pilot programs were working, that this was an important program to gauge the readiness of students coming into kindergarten, and that it would help teachers be more successful when they understand what the skills, knowledge and “readiness” of the student is to start kindergarten.
Also speaking in favor was Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who said that the Senate Ways & Means Committee had modified the bill in the budget committee to require funding before moving forward, and supporters were seeking private funds to support the program.
The bill was requested by OSPI, and is similar to 2SHB 1510, which passed the House yesterday under similar debate.
Updates on the Legislature and state government from the Washington State School Directors' Association.
