WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Gregory bill will put more qualified teachers in Washington classrooms

In the final hours of the final day of the final special session of 2015, Rep. Carol Gregory’s bill to expand Washington’s cohort of teachers with specialized skills cleared its final hurdle, passing out of the Senate with a solidly bipartisan 37-8 vote.

Gregory (D-30th district, Federal Way), a former classroom teacher appointed to fill the House seat vacated by the death of Rep. Roger Freeman, knew coming in that one of the many problems in Washington’s public school system was a shortage of teachers qualified to teach computer science, environmental sustainability, English as a second language, and bilingual and special education, among other subjects.  Her HB 1570 adds those fields to the list of specialties that currently allow teachers to apply to the Retooling to Teach Mathematics and Sciences Conditional Scholarship Program.

Formerly open only to teachers seeking endorsements in math or science, the program will now offer two-year scholarship loans of up to $4000 a year for the above areas as well.  And for good measure, it also knocks four words out of the unwieldy program title, shortening it to the Educator Retooling Conditional Scholarship Program.

“These scholarships are officially loans,” Gregory said, “but we don’t really want the teachers who benefit from them to repay them in cash.  Instead, we’re going to forgive one year of the loan for every two years that these teachers apply their new knowledge by working in a Washington classroom to educate our kids.  In the context of the state operating budget this is an almost immeasurably small investment, but it’s one that we’ll profit from every time a student learns another skill that will help them thrive in our new economy.”

Ironically, the bill was one of the first to be OK’d in the House this year, just a few weeks into the regular session, and it was the first bill introduced by the freshman legislator to do so.  It took two more successful House votes before the common-sense education reform was able to make it through the state Senate.

Under the terms of the bill, which now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee for his signature, preference for the scholarship loans is given to applicants who are veterans or National Guard members, or who are assigned to schools where students are in the greatest need of teachers who can teach in the qualifying fields.