LEV Legislative Roundup for Week 5: Burning the midnight oil

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Director of Policy and Research

 

This week the Legislature pivoted to full-time floor action, meaning that the focus will be on caucusing, debating, and passing their members’ priority bills. These days are long, and both the House of Representatives and the Senate worked this past weekend, with the House hearing bills into the early morning hours on Sunday, to get their work done before the February 15th House of Origin cutoff. It is funny how many emails legislators receive from constituents this time of session inquiring about if they are “really still working” when they stumble across TVW in the middle of the night and see their elected official speaking on a bill. The answer is “YES” – the legislators and staff put in long hours discussing possible amendments, strategizing, and finally debating bills on their respective chamber floors. Read More

LEV Legislative Roundup for Week 4: Supporting language access at the halfway point

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Director of Policy and Research

 

We have reached the halfway point of the 2022 Legislative Session! The pace has been fast and furious, so making it to the first bill cut-off and being able to put a line through another day on the calendar getting us closer to March 10th is an opportunity for everyone to briefly sigh in relief. Today, Saturday, was a long day of public hearings and executive action sessions in the House Appropriations and Senate Ways & Means Committees. Concise testimony focusing on the fiscal implications of the various bills was appreciated by the legislators who sat on Zoom from the committee’s call to order at 9:00 am until past the dinner hour.

 

The final day to pass bills out of the House of Origin Fiscal Committees is Monday, February 7. Bill proponents either celebrated seeing their bill numbers on the agendas for today or are spending their weekend scrambling in an attempt to have it scheduled for a hearing and vote on Monday. The number of bills that are referred to fiscal committees from policy committees is significant. While some bills are intentionally not scheduled – they could be exempt from the cut-off or there might be another bill being used as the vehicle for the issue – some just get overlooked. It is rare, but it happens. Advocates are working to find out what category their bill falls into and then take the appropriate action. Read More

K-12 Students Need More Excused Mental Health Days and More Comprehensive Support

by Arik Korman

By Ruby Coulson, Guest Blogger

 

Destigmatizing mental health is more than just saying the words, and it’s going to take significant steps.

Ruby Coulson is a Junior at Sequim High School, Sequim School District, National Leader through 4-H, and Committee Member on Legislative Affairs for the Washington state Legislative Youth Advisory Council (LYAC)

The Washington state Legislative Youth Advisory Council (LYAC) worked with Representative Jesse Johnson (D-30), Representative Lisa Callan (D-5), and Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos (D-37) to implement a new mental health bill, House Bill 1834. 1834’s goal is to implement more excused mental health days for K-12 education and set up more comprehensive support for students requesting these days. LYAC has always been a leading advocate for youth mental health priorities, working with legislators in the 2020-21 year to pass House Bill 1373, a bill that requires that every public school website publish contact information for suicide prevention, crisis intervention, depression and anxiety, eating disorders, and substance abuse. It passed with resounding support, with only six nays in the House out of 98.  LYAC is a group of economically, politically, geographically, and socially diverse young people lobbying for causes ranging from K-12 Education to Climate and Conservation. The reach of LYAC expands from Western Washington in the 24th district to Spokane in the 4th district, and we actively work to include as much youth voice as possible in our legislative actions. Read More

LEV Legislative Roundup for Week 3: Supports for students transitioning to postsecondary education

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Director of Policy and Research

 

Throughout week 3 of the 2022 Legislative Session, League of Education Voters (LEV) stepped up on multiple fronts – monitoring hearings, arranging testimony before committees, advocating on amendments, and working with coalition partners. The policy committee cut-off is February 3rd, followed closely by the fiscal committee cut-off on February 7th, so there has been a lot for everyone at LEV to juggle. Several committees finished their work this week and will be holding work sessions on issues, others will be spending their time caucusing and voting on various bills, and there will be a few that will be continuing to hold hearings on bills in hopes of moving them before the deadline. Regardless, it will be busy. Read More

LEV Legislative Roundup for Week 2: Add your voice to advancing racial equity

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Director of Policy and Research

 

When the Legislature is in person, our days in Olympia are filled with hundreds of conversations, and this doesn’t even take into account the additional hundred that we overhear or observe. We build strategy based on these small exchanges, exchanges that often take place in hallways or quietly whispered in the backs of hearing rooms. The passage of legislative information has always depended on these interactions. There are not enough hours in the day to meet with every person on every issue that is being debated in Olympia, so we rely on what is being shared by others. We find out who is supportive of legislation and who might have concerns. We discuss possible testimony in hearings, report on legislative meetings, or share proposed amendment language. Passing a legislator in the hall might be the opportunity to provide a quick update, or for them to let you know that there might be issues with the bill you are working on. Lasting only a matter of minutes (or even less), these conversations are the foundation of the work. Not being able to have them for the last two years has fundamentally changed the process. Some ways are for the better, but I believe that the virtual session hinders many aspects of passing legislation. There is knowledge gained by seeing more than what our computer screens show us, hearing information in the moment – not delayed, or listening to a person’s tone that can’t be reflected in an email or text. Fingers crossed that moving forward, we will adopt the positives gained by the virtual session – most importantly public access without the obstacle of traveling to the Capitol Campus, with the necessary human interactions that can be a valuable part of the legislative process. Read More

LEV Legislative Roundup for Week 1: Navigating Hundreds of Pre-Filed Bills

by Arik Korman

By Jacob Vela, League of Education Voters Director of Policy and Research

 

If experience has taught us anything, it is that the start of every legislative session is always a bit unique, and the first week of the 2022 session definitely falls into the “unique” category. After months of rumors, the House and Senate announced in late fall that the legislature was going to attempt to navigate a hybrid model for the 2022 session. The expectation was that after being completely virtual last year, legislative leadership had found a way to allow in-person interaction between the elected members both with each other and the public. Sadly, within days of the session beginning, based on the rapid increase in new COVID-19 cases, plans had to be changed.

 

The 2022 Legislative Session opened on January 10th, once again in a virtual format. Luckily, the last few years have taught us to have patience and adapt quickly to the unexpected, so with barely missing a beat, both chambers moved forward as if virtual had been the plan all along. The 2022 Legislative Session is a “short” one, running for only 60 days. During this time the elected members will debate and pass supplemental budgets and numerous policies that will directly affect our state. As with all short sessions, the pace starts off at a run and doesn’t let up until the final gavel falls on March 10th. Read More

2021 Washington state Legislative Session Wrap-Up

by Arik Korman

By League of Education Voters Policy Team

 

We knew the 2021 Legislative Session was going to be different than past years and present some not-so-happy surprises along the way. The remote nature of the session created some significant challenges in shepherding legislation through the process and understanding why some legislation hit unexpected roadblocks along the way. In the face of these difficulties, some significant pieces of legislation have made their way out of the legislature and onto the Governor’s desk.

In response to the remote session and some of the economic concerns that were present at the onset of the session, fewer bills were introduced this year than most budget years in preparation for the challenges of a remote session during a pandemic. Despite the challenges of 2021, two historic pieces of legislation were able to make it through the legislature and onto the governor’s desk including the Fair Start for Kids Act (Senate Bill 5237), which substantially expands access to high-quality early learning and childcare, and the passage of a Capital Gains Tax (Senate Bill 5096), which will generate up to $500 million per year in additional funding to support education and early learning. Both of these must still be signed by Gov. Inslee to become law, but the Capital Gains Tax is expected to face legal challenges once it gets signed into law.

We are also happy to report that a few other key bills were passed and funded by the legislature, including: Read More

LEVinar Recap: What to Expect in the 2021 Legislative Session

by Arik Korman

By Lizzeth Mancilla
Engagement and Policy Intern

 

WACapitolLegislativeBldgThe Washington state Legislative Session started this Monday, where hundreds of bills concerning early learning, safe and supportive schools, local levies/LEA, special education, etc. are being introduced in either the Senate or House of Representatives.

In this webinar, League of Education Voters Director of Policy and Research Jacob Vela and government relations consultant Carey Morris give an overview of the 2021 legislative landscape, outline our priorities for the 2021 legislative session, and answer questions.

Read More

UPDATED – 2020 Washington Legislative Session Recap

by Arik Korman

By League of Education Voters Policy Team

The end of the 2020 legislative session saw the legislature and other state leaders working rapidly and tirelessly to address the spreading COVID-19 pandemic in our schools and communities. We are incredibly grateful for the efforts of our public officials and public servants in these uncertain times to ensure that our communities are safe, and our most impacted students and families get the support they need.

The 2020 legislative session was a short, 60-day session, where legislators worked on a supplemental budget to the 2019-2021 biennial budget passed in 2019. While there were many robust debates and promising proposals regarding education investments leading up to the end of session, the need to prioritize investing in the response to COVID-19 and prepare for potential impacts on our economy, families, and healthcare system took precedent in the final budget. You can read our summary of the final 2020 supplemental budget here. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 crisis and growing economic impacts by the time of budget signing, the Governor had to make the difficult decision to veto a number of budget items that were passed by the Legislature.

During the 2020 session, League of Education Voters pursued policy priorities in four issue areas: early childhood education, student supports, special education, and local K-12 funding. Read More