Legislative Update | Feb. 26 – March 1, 2024

Let It Fly

Spring is on its way as you can tell from this crazy weather week with a little snow, a lot of rain, and a bit of wind. Bulbs are coming up, and baseball and fastpitch teams are gearing up for the season ahead. Track and field athletes shift to their outdoor season where they can really let things fly with the discus and javelin. This week, I’m featuring one of Drew’s best buddies from Colorado State, Eli Scott, who absolutely crushed it last week in the final indoor meet of the season.

The beginning of March also means that we are closing in on the end of this year’s short legislative session. Today, March 1, is the last day to consider (or pass) opposite house bills (except initiatives and alternatives to initiatives, budgets and matters necessary to implement budgets, differences between the houses, and matters incident to the interim and closing of the session). March 7 is scheduled to be “Sine Die” – the last day of the legislative session.

Work goes on behind the scenes to reconcile the two different budgets from the House and the Senate. The Senate would increase total state spending by $1.9 billion and the House would increase total spending by $2.2 billion. Of that, about $450 million is expected to go to K-12 education for both maintenance level spending and new policies and programs. The major difference in education funding between the two budgets is that the House is prioritizing increased funding for MSOC and the Senate is prioritizing funding for increasing the prototypical funding model for paraeducators. We expect to see the final budget sometime next Tuesday or Wednesday.

For a detailed look at the current differences in education spending between the House and Senate budgets, see this chart shared by Dan Steele from WASA. Thank you, Dan.

Initiatives

The legislature held hearings this week on three of the six voter-backed initiatives that are up for consideration this year. Initiative 2109 would repeal the state’s new capital gains tax which could mean that the state collects $1 billion less in tax per year. This could impact K-12 funding. In a Seattle Times article, Rep. Steve Bergquist said, “The state must fund basic K-12 education, so a repeal in November would mean that legislators would target early learning and higher education programs, as well as nonbasic spending on K-12, to trim spending of proceeds from the tax.” 

A joint hearing with the House and Senate Education Committees on Initiative 2081 titled “Concerning parental rights relating to their children’s public school education” was held on Wednesday. Legislative staff gave an excellent overview of the initiative and how it connects to current laws related to parental rights. Check out this chart to see how at least 90% of issues in this initiative are already covered by current law. Some education advocates weighed in as “other” and stated that they absolutely support parental rights but are concerned that the vagueness of this initiative may cause confusion. The initiative passed out of both committees this morning and will go to the floor of each house for a vote.

Read more about the initiatives in this article from the Seattle Times. 

Below is a re-cap of the major items in K-12 spending for this session. The total amounts are still being adjusted through amendments to the bills or in budget negotiations.

House Budget 

Special Education Enhancements ($32.3 million NGF-O 2023-25; $32.3 million Total 2023- 25; $114.9 million 4-year NGF-O) Funding is provided for an increase to the funded enrollment limit for students eligible for special education from 15 percent to 17.25 percent, as required in HB 2180. Additionally, funding is provided for cohorts of special education teacher residents to participate in training, coursework, and classroom co-teaching with mentor teachers. 

Maintenance, Supplies, and Operating Costs ($43.4 million NGF-O 2023-25; $43.4 million Total 2023-25; $94.7 million 4-year NGF-O) Per pupil rates for maintenance, supplies, and operating costs (MSOCs) are increased by $21 beginning in the current 2023-24 school year, as required under HB 2494. The categories of MSOCs increased are utilities and insurance, instructional professional development, and security and central office. 

Community Eligibility Provision ($41.2 million NGF-O 2023-25; $41.2 million Total 2023- 25; $90.4 million 4-year NGF-O) Funding is provided for additional reimbursements to schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provisions program for school meals not reimbursed at the federal free meal rate. 

Transportation Actuals for 2023-24 ($76.9 million NGF-O 2023-25; $76.9 million Total 2023-25; $165.8 million 4-year NGF-O) Appropriations are increased to reflect updated 2023-24 school year transportation allocations calculated by OSPI in February of this year, which are above the estimated amounts assumed through January.

Senate Budget

Transportation Actuals – $76.9 million NGF-O (2023-25); $88.9 million NGF-O (2025-27) Funding is provided to account for OSPI allocation of transportation funding to school districts. 

K-12 Staffing – $49.6 million NGF-O (2023-25); $129.8 million NGF-O (2025-27) Funding is provided to modify the prototypical school staffing model and to implement SB 5882 (prototypical school staffing) which increases staff allocations for paraeducators, office supports, and non instructional aides. 

CEP Expansion – $45 million NGF-O (2023-25); $45 million NGF-O (2025-27) Funding is provided to reimburse additional school districts required to participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) pursuant to Chapter 7, Laws of 2022 (SHB 1878). The funding will support schools not eligible for the full federal reimbursement rate. 

Transportation – $23.1 million NGF-O (2023-25); $25.6 million NGF-O (2025-27) Funding is provided for adequate and predictable student transportation as proposed in SB 5873. For McKinney-Vento homeless students, $400 per student is provided to 32,086 students. Funding is provided in the amount of $170,000 for OSPI to collect student expenditure data, $6 million is provided to the OSPI for supplemental transportation allocations, and $4 million is provided to OSPI to allow contract bus drivers and related staff to opt-in to benefits. Funding is provided to OSPI in the amount of $130,000 to implement SB 6031. 

Special Education – $13.5 million NGF-O (2025-27); $36 million NGF-O (2025-27) Funding is provided to increase the 15 percent enrollment limit on state special education funding to 15.6 percent.

The House partly honored our request for additional funding for the principal intern grant program and added $223,000 to the current amount of $477,000 for a total of $700,000. The Senate did not add additional funds for the grant. This was well short of the $1 million we requested be added. Neither side added funding to support current building principals so we continue to impress upon the legislature the critical nature of this request.

Bills

I’ve taken the bills from my bill tracking list and put them here by category for your information. A few of these won’t make it past Friday’s deadline and a few others may no