Dear Neighbors,
The second week of the 2013 legislative session began on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, and legislators honored the slain civil rights leader with a resolution on the House floor. While his birthday is celebrated each year as a federal holiday, Dr. King’s message of equality for all is relevant every day of the year. As he once famously said, “No one is free, until everyone is free.”
Bills are going into the Hopper
It’s a phrase you’ll hear a lot within the legislature: “putting a bill in the Hopper.” What does that even mean? Every piece of proposed legislation that’s introduced goes to the Code Reviser’s Office, where it is stamped and then examined by Code Reviser staff to make sure it’s in the proper format to become a law. The place where bills are dropped off for Code Reviser staff is called “the Hopper.” These days, the Hopper is pretty busy as legislators from the House and Senate submit bills for consideration in the 2013 session. Here’s an easy-to-follow guide on how a bill becomes a law. And if you want to find out about or track a particular piece of legislation, here’s where you can access the info you’re looking for.
My Bills
I’m pleased to be serving on the Education Committee and excited about two of my bills that are related to K-12 Education. My focus is to improve access to programs to prepare all kids for college and to promote health and safety for all students in Washington.
HB 1336, beginning in 2014-15,requires each school district to adopt a plan for recognition of emotionally distressed youth, initial screening of their warning signs, and appropriate responses to crisis. This bill is designed to equip school personnel with tools necessary to recognize and respond to early indicators of troubled youth in order to ensure the safety of our children. The bill also requires school nurses, social workers, and counselors to complete a training program of at least 3 hours to identify youth in need, screen for suicide, and refer to community providers as a condition of their certification.
HB 1526 would expand access to the Running Start program. It creates a six-year pilot project involving a partnership between middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions to increase enrollment and retention of underrepresented students in the Running Start program. Participating schools must provide outreach to high school students to raise awareness of the Running Start program and provide necessary social/academic support in college settings to ensure that historically underrepresented groups have access to this program. This bill provides an opportunity for participating schools to be pioneers in closing the opportunity gap in higher education.
$40 million Race to the Top grant awarded to seven local school districts!
A grant application written jointly by seven King County school districts has won $40 million in federal Race to the Top funds, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.
The Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, Seattle and Tukwila school districts competed together this fall as “The Road Map District Consortium,” a reference to their participation in The Road Map Project, a collaborative effort to dramatically improve education in South Seattle and South King County.
The King County districts’ application was among 16 winners selected out of 372 applications. Awards ranged from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the number of students served by the plan. The Road Map District Consortium was one of only two applicants to win the maximum award of $40 million.
The winning plan covers 261 schools and 150,000 students, including 36,000 high-need children. The districts will use the four-year Race to the Top grant to implement the following plans to help students “Start Strong,” be “STEM Strong” and “Stay Strong”:
Start Strong – We know that early learning is critical
- Provide funds to help districts work with preschools and early learning programs to help kids be ready to be successful in kindergarten
- Improve math, science and English Language Learner (ELL) teaching and leadership approaches so all students receive high-quality instruction
STEM Strong – We live in a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-intensive region
- Provide a computer-based math instructional program for all high-need K-8th grade students that they can use in school and at home
- Help students explore STEM careers via online tools, speakers, mentors and internships
- Be a leader in implementing Next Generation Science Standards
Stay Strong – These strategies will help more students be successful in postsecondary education
- Offer all students the opportunity to take the SAT and PSAT in school for free
- Offer training for middle and high school guidance counselors and provide counselor assistants to better serve more students
- Offer districts the opportunity to the Advanced Placement (AP) course selections for students and help more teachers to get AP course training. Also, provide the opportunity to include more STEM, International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, world language and career certificate options
OSPI receives grant to help English language learners
TheOffice of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) awarded a grant this week that will help improve the career and college readiness of English language learners. The grant was given by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the World Languages Program at OSPI. Key partners in carrying out the project will be the seven school districts involved with the Road Map Project (Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, Seattle, and Tukwila), the Office of the Education Ombudsman, School’s Out Washington, the Center for Applied Second Language Studies at the University of Oregon, and Education Northwest as an evaluator. Money from the grant, totaling $460,000 over two years, will be used for the Road Map World Language Credit Program. The program will focus on offering high school credits to English language learners and students who come from homes in which languages other than English are spoken. More information about the grant and the Road Map Project can be accessed at this link: https://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/PressReleases2013/ELL-Grant.aspx.
Closing the STEM gap
Did you know Washington ranks fourth in the nation in technology-based corporations, but 46th in participation in science and engineering graduate degree programs? This is the disparity we are fixing with STEM instruction. Those large employers are scrambling to find the high-skilled workers they need and, if our state can’t provide them, they are importing them from elsewhere in the country and the world. These are Washington companies and their good-paying jobs should go to Washington workers.
To address this issue, in 2010 the legislature passed my House Bill 2621, directing the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to designate six “lighthouse” schools each year to promote and develop Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education, including technical assistance and advice for other elementary, middle and high schools that are creating their own STEM environments. One of the original lighthouse schools recognized for its excellence in STEM education was Aviation High School, right in our district!
In the 22 months since the law went into effect, 24,000 students and 800 teachers have participated in 58 STEM programs across Washington. Last week, OSPI announced the schools that will receive STEM funding in 2013:
- Delta High School (Kennewick)
- Bremerton High School (Bremerton)
- Stevens Elementary School (Aberdeen)
- West Valley Junior High School (West Valley Yakima)
- West Hills STEM Academy (Bremerton)
- WF West High School (Chehalis)
- San Juan School District
I hope to hear from you, so please call or email me, and if you’re ever in the area, drop by my office.
Sincerely,
