With the state Legislature set to resume next week, education will likely once again be a high priority for lawmakers, particularly in the wake of a recent ruling by the Washington state Supreme Court that could impact how school construction throughout the state is funded.
Last month, The Chronicle’s Editorial Board sat down with Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, Rep. Ed Ocrutt, R-Kalama, and Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, from the 20th Legislative District to discuss their legislative priorities and outline what they envision for the upcoming session.
The Legislature will convene on Jan. 8 for a 60-day session. The session ends on March 7.
Citing a lack of affordability and availability of child care, post-pandemic learning loss, “challenges” in higher education and a broad list of other issues impacting families around the state, the Republicans have broadened their goal to now “build a better future for Washington’s children.”
“We’ve worked at prioritizing education for a long time. It’s been an important part of our focus the last few years, in particular, on certain issues,” Braun said.
The Republicans’ agenda to improve the outcomes of Washington’s children includes:
• The creation of student academic achievement grants to target learning loss
• Extending the school year and encouraging school districts to provide a year-round school instructional schedule
• Investing in better special education programs and services
• Reducing chronic absenteeism
• Clarifying and reinforcing parents' rights in education
• Expanding resources and professional learning opportunities for educators to teach Holocaust studies
• Ensuring substitute teachers receive the necessary information about school safety policies and procedures
• Creating a grant program to increase physical security at K-12 public school facilities and campuses
• Developing a seismic risk assessment for the safety of public school facilities in danger of high seismic risk
• Providing an increased earning opportunity by assisting students in earning a short-term credential or certificate
• Making it felony child endangerment to expose children to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl
“These aren’t partisan issues, but they’re really important issues to get right,” Braun said. “And to be clear, that’s where I think we should focus.”
Reinforcing parental rights
Though students have returned to the classroom, the legislators say more needs to be done to address the long-term effects of COVID-19, particularly during increased scrutiny of curriculum and policies as some parents demand more transparency.
Two days before the interview, supporters of Initiative 2081, which would codify a “parents’ bill of rights,” submitted nearly 425,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office.
According to Braun, the initiative is “in some ways very similar” to a bill proposed by Sen. Perry Dozier, R-Waitsburg, during the 2023 session. Dozier’s bill received a hearing in the Education Committee but did not advance.
“It’s just saying, focused on school districts, look, when you have changes in curriculum, when you are doing things that are going to affect the way our children are taught, you have an obligation to inform parents so that they know what’s going on,” Braun said. “The plain reading of the bill, it’s not particularly controversial. It’s things, I believe, folks of all political persuasions would want to know about for their children going to public school.”
Addressing chronic absenteeism
“This is probably politically impossible to change. We’ve restricted what school districts can do in terms of discipline,” Braun said of chronic absenteeism. “Truancy laws are not particularly well-enforced right now, so what can we do right now to get after this?”
According to Braun, one proposal is based on a pilot project and would track absenteeism “on a more rigorous basis.”
The issue, Braun said, includes students who either skip school altogether or are physically on campus but do not attend their scheduled classes.
“It’s just collecting data, and seeing who's doing it, and then talking to them about it, and talking to their parents about it,” Braun said. “It seems pretty basic.”
According to an analysis of 40 states and the District of Columbia compiled by Stanford University professor Thomas Dee, in partnership with The Associated Press, Washington state had the 10th highest rate of chronic absenteeism during the 2021-2022 school year.
That year, 33% of students were considered chronically absent, 18 percentage points higher than the state’s rate in the 2018-2019 school year.
“We are a national leader right now in chronic absenteeism,” Braun said. “Not a place where you want to be a learning loss.”
The issue, Braun said, is hand-in-hand with the learning loss caused by the shift to either fully remote or hybrid learning.
“It won’t solve all of the problems, but it seems like it’s a good step in the right direction,” Braun said.
Funding for school construction
While school districts across the state have struggled to reach the 60% threshold needed to pass a school bond, a step needed to unlock additional state construction funding, the state Supreme Court ruled in September that the state is not required to fully foot the bill for construction.
“I’ve worked all summer long on K-12 construction because all of it goes through the capital budget,” Abbarno said. “I’ve toured a number of different schools around the state.”
According to Abbarno, the issue isn’t purely financial. Instead, he said changes could be made to the state’s School Construction Assistance Program (SCAP) formula for determining the state’s financial support.
“The court ended up saying that construction is, in and of itself, not constitutionally required. It’s not part of the constitutional basic education,” Abbarno said. “At this point, I think it’s about making sure we use our K-12 construction money wisely. But that doesn’t change the fact that we need to make some adjustments to some of the formulas and how we actually pass bonds at a local level.”
However, Abbarno said he doesn’t support proposals to lower the voter threshold necessary to pass a bond from 60% to 55%, a compromise that has floated around the Legislature in recent sessions.
“It’s not the path of least resistance. You would still need a constitutional amendment and be three or four years out before that ever gets dealt with in the court system,” Abbarno said. “I think a better path of least resistance is to fund schools, make sure that kids are in a good learning environment.”
According to Orcutt, the Toledo School District is a success story in funding construction, particularly after voters initially failed to pass a school bond.
“We came and provided some funding if they could pass a bond at a smaller level,” Orcutt said. “When the voters saw that, the voters said, ‘OK, we’ll put some money up to go with the money that the state is providing us.’ And they passed the bond.”
