Hurry up and wait

Last Friday was the deadline for bills to pass out of the opposite chamber but few education bills were left hanging. For the most part, bills that passed out of the policy or budget committee also passed off the floor.

One casualty was the Breakfast After the Bell bill, which failed to make it out of the Senate budget committee. A bill that would have required school districts to begin identifying students of military families died on the Senate 2nd Reading calendar.

Bills on expanded learning opportunities, identifying homeless students, preserving the economy and efficiency waiver, and recognizing graduating seniors with a seal of biliteracy all passed the House and are securing the necessary signatures to reach the Governor's desk for signature.

The past two days have seen a flurry of activity by teachers opposing any effort to change the teacher and principal evaluation system by requiring the use of student test scores as one of multiple measures for teachers in grades and subjects that have reading, writing, and math assessments. At risk is the state's waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires schools to set aside 20 percent of its Title I funding for private vendors. House Democrats "caucused" on the bill last week, but neither HB 2800 (Inslee and Dorn) or SSB 5880 have seen action.

In addition, one of the other big issues is E2SSB 6552 - particularly the components related to implementation of 24 credits. Last Friday the number of amendments stood at 20 to the bill; since then another three have been added. Fear not, some amendments are to the House Appropriations Committee version while others are to a different version offered by Rep. Monica Stonier.

WSSDA has framed the conversation as one of: funding, fairness and flexibility. The House plan earlier today was to caucus on the various amendments, count how many votes support which amendments, and then pass the bill. It's nearly 3 p.m. and they are still in caucus, so we'll see what happens.