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On Friday, both the House and Senate continued to spend long hours in
their respective chambers taking action on numerous bills — or working
behind-the-scenes in their political caucuses. Even though many bills
were adopted by both the House and Senate today, at the time this
Update was being prepared, only two education-related bills had been
acted upon: HB 3166 and SB 6483.
HB 3166, adopted by the House, would make various changes to
Washington’s assessment system and the current WASL. The bill would
direct OSPI to develop statewide End-of-Course assessments for high
school mathematics and phase them in beginning in 2009-10. Beginning
with the Class of 2014, the End-of-Course assessments would be
required as the high school mathematics assessment for graduation,
replacing the current mathematics WASL. OSPI would also be directed to
redesign the WASL in all areas except writing and all grades except
high school to shorten test administration. The bill now moves to the
Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Senators, for the most part, have
not taken a position on End-of-Course assessments and have been more
focused on the state’s assessment contract — which is scheduled to be
renewed this year.
SB 6483, adopted by the Senate, is the companion to HB 2798
which was adopted by the House yesterday. The bill would enact the
Local Farms-Healthy Kids and Communities Act and create new programs
to assist school districts in the purchase of locally grown food. A
new Farm-to-School Program administered by the state Department of
Agriculture would be created and a new Washington Grown Fresh Fruit
and Vegetable Grant Program, to be administered by OSPI would also be
created.
Although the Legislature only adopted two education-related bills
today (at least at the point this Update was being prepared), many
more bills of interest to the education community remain on the Senate
or House Floor Calendars or are awaiting action in the Senate or House
Rules Committees. Both the Senate and House are expected to work late
this evening and will likely work tomorrow. The House is tentatively
scheduled to work on Sunday as well. We will provide updates on any
pertinent action taken this weekend in Monday’s Update.
In budget news,
the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met this
afternoon to release its update of the state revenue forecast. Actual
revenue collections this past month were considerably weakened;
however, November and December collections were fairly strong.
Cumulatively, receipts are approximately $20 million higher than
expected in the last three months. That is the good news. The bad news
is that the economy’s outlook is much weaker than assumed in November.
The revenue forecast has been reduced by $423.4 million for the
2007-09 biennium. To put that number in context, the November 2007
forecast for the 2007-09 biennium was $130.4 million lower than
expected in the September forecast, so the Forecast Council predicts
an additional loss of close to $300 million. Added to that problem is
a projected increase in mandatory caseload costs of approximately $60
million more than anticipated in November. What does that mean for the
2008 Supplemental Operating Budget? Less revenue and more expenses
make for a nasty mix. When the 2008 session began, Gov. Gregoire’s
major priority was to leave $1.2 billion “in the bank” for future
budgets. She has already backed off that request and has indicated she
would be comfortable leaving town with $1 billion in reserves. Earlier
in the session, House and Senate budget-writers seemed inclined to
support a limited supplemental budget and leave $1.2 billion in
reserve. Now, with projected increased mandatory caseload costs and
reductions in projected revenues, legislators will be faced with some
difficult decisions. They will be forced to: (1) use more of the
currently available revenues, cutting further into the anticipated
reserve amount; (2) shelve some of their funding priorities; or (3)
raise additional revenue. At this point, it is unlikely many
legislators will even consider raising taxes (this is an election
year, after all), so they will presumably try to use a combination of
option 1 and option 2 — that is, leave less revenue in the bank and
reduce the amount of enhanced funding. We will know more when
budget-writers in the House release their 2008 Supplemental Operating
Budget proposal on Wednesday, Feb. 20. |
