Snohomish schools may cut on-campus police officers
According to the
Everett Herald newspaper, budget cuts have forced the Edmonds School District to consider dropping its school resource officer program, which would save $200,000 in next year's budget. It is among $6.7 million in budget reductions that Superintendent Nick Brossoit is proposing to the school board.
The Lakewood School District north of Marysville also is considering eliminating its school resource officer to save money. It's looking for ways to cut $813,000.
Read the entire
news article.
Posted By: Rick Chisa on 5/5/2010 12:31:00 PM
School safety
Furlough bill passes House
Getting the bare minimum yes votes (50) for passage, the House passed its version of the
furlough bill. This version doesn't change the picture much regarding the impact of the furlough bill on PSE higher education members. That's because we won't know how many cuts will result from this bill until the operating budget is adopted. And that budget is under wraps while the revenue negotiations continue.
The one thing that is clear to me is that the extent of the furlough bill cuts will be balanced with insurance cuts. Another way of saying this is that we can expect that the two issues are joined together and that once the House and Senate agree to how much they plan to cut in these two areas, they will either increase or decrease one or the other to achieve the total.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 4/6/2010 6:30:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Higher Education
One week to go in special session - little sense of urgency
Since my last post, I acquired a new laptop and finally am able to post an update to the blog. So what has happened in the last two weeks??? Not much!
Here is a recap of the slow moving special session.
Governor Signs Education Bills
A week ago, Governor Gregoire returned to her high school alma mater, Auburn High School, to sign four education bills PSE worked on:
- PSE's crosswalk safety bill, SSB 6363
- the school levy bill, SHB 2893
- the education funding reform bill, SHB 2776, and,
- the race to the top bill, E2SSB 6696.
House and Senate Unable to Reach Agreement on Revenue Package
So far, they have reached agreement that they will pass additional revenue of $800 million. Of that amount, they agree on the taxes to get $600 million of that amount. The remaining $200 million is hung up by the Senate's wish to have a 0.001% increase to the state sales tax, and the House's complete rejection of any sales tax increase. There are other disagreements over smaller tax increases but it is hard to see that these disagreements will result in them not reaching a final agreement by April 13 (the last day of the special session).
Operating Budget Negotiations Taking Back Seat to Revenue Negotiations
Though there has been some verbal statements from a variety of House and Senate leaders, it appears that they want to tackle the revenue agreement before moving on to the spending agreements. PSE's K 12 priorities for the special session are:
- fully fund K - 4 class-size
- continue funding of the classified employee ratio enhancement (58.75:1)
- continue funding all day kindergarten
- fund levy equalization, the enhanced levy equalization from SHB 2893, and the per pupil inflator at 4%.
PSE's higher education priority is to reduce and/or eliminate the impact of the furlough bill and the House and Senate's efforts to have state and higher education employees pay more for insurance benefits.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 4/6/2010 5:21:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Budget & Taxes
,
Education Reform
,
Health Insurance
,
Higher Education
,
Levy
,
School Crosswalk Safety
A HUGE day for Education
The state of Washington took its biggest step yet yesterday toward
fully funding classified jobs and services as Gov. Gregoire signed into
law a major reform law that includes a new funding formula and a
timeline for including technology, school safety, and paraeducator
instruction as part of Basic Education.
Passage of HB 2776 was a major victory for the thousands of classified
employees who have repeatedly called for change, and for all PSE
members who have paid $1 per month to sustain the Stepping Up for
Smarter Safer Schools campaign. The new law sets a clear path toward
providing more adequate, stable funding for classified jobs and
services, and lessens the reliance on local levies.
Read More
Posted By: Rick Chisa on 3/29/2010 6:09:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Basic Ed Finance Reform
,
Education Reform
,
Higher Education
,
School Crosswalk Safety
Little progress in one week old special session
Inching along is the best way to describe the progress so far. On Friday, 4 days into the special session, things started to move when the Senate passed its tax package amounting to $800 million. Yesterday, the House passed its tax package of $800 million. Though this looks like they are in agreement, they are not.
The Senate still has a .2% sales tax increase amounting to $200 million. The House, considered the sales tax, and then voted out a tax package without it in it. And with that issue at a stalemate, both bodies adjourned until Monday at 10:00 am.
Once the revenue picture is clear, all eyes will turn to the final Budget negotiations.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/21/2010 5:33:00 PM
2010 Session
Special session starts Monday at noon
When the legislature returns to Olympia on Monday, PSE will be focusing on the following issues:
State and Higher Education Employee Insurance
There is a continuing debate over how much the state and employee's in the state insurance plan will pay for insurance benefits. In an earlier blog, I described the $220 million shortfall in their insurance plan that needs to be filled. The governor and the House are our most helpful allies in limiting the employee costs.
Furlough Bill
Though this bill has been sitting on the sidelines for several weeks, it crops up from time to time because the state is looking for its $50 million in savings. Unfortunately, most of these savings ($40 million) will require some type of employee sacrifice - this will be negotiated between the agency or university and the employee bargaining representatives. We hope it stays on the sidelines!
Classified Employee Ratio
Though we were able to put the 58.75:1 ratio in the basic education act that becomes effective 9-1-11, we still need to make sure it sticks in the final year of the 2009-11 budget. So far, the Governor and the House have it in their budgets.
Revenue / Cuts
In a previous blog entry, I highlighted the differences between how much each would raise in additional revenue, how much they would cut, and how much they would leave in the ending fund balance. We like the Senate's revenue ($890 million), the House's cuts ($605 million), and the House's ending fund balance of $424 million. We'll soon see in the special session how close they get to our preferred amounts.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/12/2010 5:52:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Budget & Taxes
,
Health Insurance
Last day of session ends on positive note
The high stakes game of chicken played by the House and Senate education leaders that involved several critical K 12 education issues was interrupted by Governor Gregoire's intervention. Gregoire forced both sides to negotiate a conclusion to the impasse so that her coveted race to the top issue would be resolved. In the final hours, they were able to reach an agreement good enough that both sides being able to declare victory. And who were the winners? K 12 students, families and employees. The agreement they reached far surpassed my expectations, especially considering the wide gulf between the two bodies' positions at the start of the day.
End of Session
Early on in the session, I thought that the last bills that the legislature would consider would be the levy bill
(SHB 2893), the Race to the Top (RTTP) bill
(E2SSB 6696), and the Quality Education Council (QEC) bill,
(SHB 2776). My thinking was that with so many bad things going on with the budget, the legislature would most likely want to end the session on a good note. Nothing is better to end on than doing something good for K 12 education (this is because with 1 million kids going to school, you can't go wrong doing something positive for it). Well, I was wrong. The last bill was an early education bill (which followed the QEC and RTTP bills).
Here's what the impact of each of the bills starting with the one that passed first, earlier yesterday afternoon, the levy bill.
Read More
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/12/2010 11:03:00 AM
2010 Session
,
Basic Ed Finance Reform
,
Education Reform
,
Levy
Senate committee passes good levy bill
Yesterday, the Senate Ways and Means committee approved
SHB 2893 without amendment. This measure will not only fund a 2% increase to current levy equalization payments (at a cost of $25 million), it will raise the levy lid 4% (and allow school districts who already have a levy a special opportunity to go back and ask for the additional 4%), and finally, it will allow school districts to consider the "phantom revenue" they would have received from the state for Initiative 728 (class size), Initiative 732 (salary increases), and any reduced K-4 class size funds.
Previous to this vote, there was an effort yesterday to change the way that the 2% additional levy equalization funds would be distributed. This effort was led by Senator Tom and would have created equalization chaos by taking money from some districts (who would be very unhappy) and giving it to other districts (who would be happy). Fortunately, Senator Tom did not try this effort yesterday. Could he bring it up on the Senate floor when they vote on it in the coming days? He could but I don't think he will.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/10/2010 1:24:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Levy
Budget summary numbers as they head into negotiations
Below is the summary of important aspects of both the House and Senate 2010 Supplemental Operating Budgets. While we like the fact that the House cuts were so much smaller than the Senate, unfortunately the Revenue package they approved last night (early this morning), also raised $177 million less than they anticipated in their budget. When you look at these numbers, it is clear the major places for negotiations to take place are in the new revenue and cuts categories.
All the more reason to continue to let your Senator or Representative know that we need " more reform and revenue, not more cuts".
|
New Revenue* |
Cuts |
Federal Funds |
|
| House |
$680 million |
$605 million |
$641 million |
|
| Senate |
$890 million |
$838 million |
$583 million |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fund Transfers |
Ending Fund Balance |
|
| House |
$550 million |
$424 million |
|
|
| Senate |
$498 million |
$523 million |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| * The House budget assumed $857 million in new revenue, the
Senate Budget assumed $918 million |
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/9/2010 3:03:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Budget & Taxes
Senate continues to thwart effort to update funding formula
There is quite a struggle going on between the House and Senate over whether to make a commitment to improve the education funding formulas. With only 3 days to go in the regular session, this afternoon the Senate stripped off the House's amendment to
E2SSB 6696. The House's amendment would have implemented many of the Quality Education Council's recommendations; especially important to us was their support for placing our 58.75:1 ratio in the basic education act and moving up by two years the implementation of the new transportation funding formula.
We are disappointed in the Senate's efforts but all is not lost. Soon the House and Senate conferees will meet to hammer out a compromise.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/8/2010 11:36:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Basic Ed Finance Reform
,
Education Reform
House approves budget with insurance sweetener
Late last night, the House approved it's supplemental operating budget on a vote of 55-43. After several hours of debate on numerous amendments, the one amendment that is most important to us is the insurance amendment offered by Representative Mark Ericks. As you know, there is a looming $200 million shortfall in the state employee insurance fund that needs to be filled. The House is appropriating $134 million to help fill the hole. This is significantly higher than the amount appropriated by the Senate ($22 million).
Return to Negotiation Table
In exchange for that higher funded amount, the House is requesting that unions return to the negotiating table to renegotiate the level of premium share that employees' will pay.
$90 Million Reserve Fund
Lastly, the amendment requires the PEBB to ensure that they have $90 million in reserves to avoid financial concerns raised by the State insurance commissioner. This will require an adjustment of employee co-pays and plan benefits in order to maintain the reserves.
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/6/2010 1:07:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Budget & Taxes
,
Higher Education
Reform movement hits Senate blockade
The House continues to put forth a strong commitment to implement the promises made in last year's education reform bill, 2261. Their enthusiasm however, has been met with a Senate that is more interested in keeping things the same.
House Action
This morning, the House approved
E2SSB 6696, on a strong bi-partisan vote of 76-22. This bill will implement the classified employee ratio in the prototype formula, implement the enhanced transportation funding formula in 2011, and increase the maintenance, supplies, and operating costs significantly over the next 3 years. It will also start funding improved class
size ratios in K-3 to 17:1. It should be mentioned that the impact of all of these changes may add up to $1 billion to education funding next biennium and $2 - 2.5 billion in the next biennium. Now that's what I call making a commitment to education.
The other aspect of the bill is that it implements the "Race to the Top" measures which will hopefully help qualify Washington state for the federal grants to improve schools that are not performing well.
Read More
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/5/2010 6:37:00 PM
2010 Session
,
Basic Ed Finance Reform
,
Education Reform
Safer crosswalks coming soon
This evening, the House gave final approval to PSE's effort to improve school crosswalk safety.
SSB 6363, sponsored by Spokane Senator Chris Marr, is headed to Governor Gregoire for her approval. This is the 3rd PSE bill in the last two days to make it to the Governor. Thanks and congratulations to PSE member Reen Doser, Linetter Lasher, and Auburn school district driver trainer April Hurlbert for their assistance and testimony. Without their efforts, we would not have made it this far in the legislative process in the first year the bill was introduced (most bills take several years to pass).
Posted By: Doug Nelson on 3/5/2010 12:18:00 AM
2010 Session
,
School Crosswalk Safety