Legislation seeks to improve education

Article IX, Section 1 of the Washington State Constitution states, “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.”

In 2007, a lawsuit on behalf of the McCleary and Venema families was filed against Washington. Their allegation: the state’s failure to fulfill its Constitutional promise.

The case, known as McCleary v. State of Washington, led the Supreme Court to rule in 2012 that Washington is not providing adequate funds for the basic education of its students.

The state’s efforts to comply with the ruling have been implemented with varying delays. Presently, the efforts to improve Washington State’s education system continue through new legislation.

Recently, two bills with potential to impact Washington state students moved through steps of legislation in Olympia.

Senate Bill 5607, seeking to enact the Education Equality Act, passed through its chamber of origin on Jan. 31.

House Bill (HB) 1046, seeking to disconnect standardized testing with high school graduation, passed through to house appropriations on Jan. 26.

The goal of the Education Equality Act is “to improve educational outcomes for all students and provide greater flexibility and accountability for all school districts.”

To do so, the legislation would change the state’s distribution of funding from a per-school to per-pupil model.

As a result, the bill summary explains, “school districts with an enrollment of less than 2,500 will receive the greater of funding under current law or what the funding that would be provided under the new formula.”

The summary reports that the Education Equality Act “creates a partnership between the state and school districts to fully fund basic education through a permanent, non-voter approved local effort levy to provide a guaranteed funding amount that each school district receives.”

The legislation would then cap local maintenance and operation levies beginning in 2019.

To fulfill the second half of its goal, the Education Equality Act proposes to “increase accountability by establishing school district performance targets and a timeline to determine school district success.”

Currently, the Education Equality Act is working through the House.

Regarding HB 1046, new mandates would no longer require students to obtain Certificates of Academic Achievement — evidence that students pass state tests—in order to graduate.

Without House Bill 1046, students currently unable to pass state standardized tests participate in Collection of Evidence (COE).

The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction explained, “The COE is a set of work samples prepared by the student using state-developed reading, writing, mathematics, and biology tasks… <and> is one of several state-approved alternatives high school students can use to fulfill assessment graduation requirements.”

Under HB 1046, numerous changes related to Certificates of Academic Achievement would occur, including the elimination of alternate assessments (like the COE) for students not meeting standards.

Many other legislative movements are in the early stages of making significant impacts on Washington state high school students.

Among them: HB 1012, which would remove the requirement of the Biology End of Course Assessment for the class of 2018 and beyond, and HB 1509, which would reduce the number of credits required for graduation from 24 to 21.

Both HB 1012 and HB 1509 are working through the House Education Committee and are yet to pass through to the next legislative step.

The cut off for reading bills for all committees in the Washington State legislature is Feb. 24, the last day to pass bills in their house of origin is March 8, and the legislative session will end April 23.

During this legislative session especially, Washington’s strategies to fulfill its “paramount duty” will continue to be debated.