Big 3 Briefing, Week 8 - Bloodbath

Episode 20

See our Show Notes

[00:00:00] Christie Robertson: Welcome to Rainy Day Recess. This is week eight of the Big 3 Briefing series, where we're tracking bills in our state legislature related to the key funding priorities for school districts across Washington. 

I'm Christie Robertson, a parent in Seattle Public Schools and co-producer of the podcast, and my co-host for this series is Megan Larkin.

[00:00:22] Megan Larkin: Yes. Hi, I have two kids in Seattle Public Schools and I am a big fan of the Big 3. 

[00:00:30] Christie Robertson: And the Big 3 again.

[00:00:32] Megan Larkin: The big three areas are special education, MSOC, which stands for Material Supplies and Operating Costs, and student transportation. These are areas that have the biggest funding gaps between what districts get from the state and what they actually spend. So getting the  Big 3 helps all of Washington's 295 districts and 1.1 million kids.

[00:01:01] Christie Robertson: We're tracking a small set of bills related to these  Big 3 priorities as they navigate the legislative process as a way to educate folks and ourselves on how the process works. And, wow, what a week.

[00:01:15] Megan Larkin: Oh boy, yeah.

Transportation

[00:01:17] Christie Robertson: Megan, do we need to change the series to call it the  Big 2? 

[00:01:20] Megan Larkin: I refuse to give up. So, it is true that we have our first like official bill deaths. Because the cutoff to get out of the fiscal committee was Friday the 28th, and the two transportation bills did not advance. So RIP Senate Bill 5187 and House Bill 1579. We hardly knew ye.  

[00:01:50] Christie Robertson: And does that mean there's no hope of any transportation funding?

[00:01:54] Megan Larkin: So it would've been ideal. If you recall, what we were wanting in our transportation bills was ideally reworking the transportation formula through OSPI. So that's off the table now that the bills are dead. But now we gotta go to plan B, which is hoping for a proviso in the budget. 

[00:02:17] Christie Robertson: And a budget proviso is kind of a way of assigning money to something that didn't make it through in the traditional way by having a bill pass.

[00:02:28] Megan Larkin: Yes. We want that provision that the bills had for $400 a head for McKinney-Vento students. And ideally, we would like to add another highly mobile population into that mix, so kids in the foster care system. We would also like to include our students with disabilities who require additional transportation services. So the shorthand for this is we want money for “special passengers”.  

We have gotten a Proviso in past years, but the budget climate now is so tight that it's probably going to be a bigger lift. But we're still going to try. So it's still the Big 3.

[00:02:58] Christie Robertson: Just one of the three has to be back channeled.

[00:03:17] Megan Larkin: Yes.

[00:03:18] Christie Robertson: And if folks are wanting to keep pushing for transportation funding, they just would mention to their legislators, “Make sure to keep transportation in mind in the budget.” Is that kind of the phrasing?

[00:03:31] Megan Larkin: I believe so. It'll be interesting to see how the budget writing process unfolds. On March 14th, there'll be a new revenue forecast released. And around March 25th, I'm hearing that the Majority Caucus is going to have a draft of their budget. And then I know there's all kinds of bills for revenue and things like that, and lots of conversations happening. So within the next couple of weeks, we should have a better picture of what kind of budget provisos are reasonably going to be out there.

[00:04:08] Christie Robertson: Oh, okay. 

All right, so the two transportation bills died, and that's just the beginning of the bloodbath. 

[00:04:19] Megan Larkin: Yeah.

[00:04:22] Christie Robertson: We do have two surviving MSOC bills and two surviving special ed bills. But there were all kinds of changes in those arenas.

[00:04:29] Megan Larkin: Yes, it's sad. 

[00:04:32] Christie Robertson: It's sad.

Special Education

[00:04:33] Christie Robertson: And should we start with the sadness that is the special education bills?

[00:04:39] Megan Larkin: Yes. Yeah, that was gut wrenching.

[00:04:42] Christie Robertson: Yeah, so in the House, we had our favorite special education bill HB 1310, which was sponsored by Rep Pollet, who is our excellent special ed and education advocate from the 46th district in Seattle. And that bill had everything we wanted. 

So we were all very excited to see that 1310 was scheduled for an exec session in appropriations and everybody was very relieved. "Oh my gosh, it's really gonna get voted on." Until Wednesday at 11:03 a.m. where it was unceremoniously removed from the schedule and replaced with the bill HB 1357.

[00:05:38] Megan Larkin: Yes.

[00:05:39] Christie Robertson:   And what I want to do at this point is to walk through all the features that were in House Bill 1310,  so that we can keep those features in mind and make sure that some version of those features, the best version we can get of those features, is in whatever bill goes through in the end.

First of all, it had a ton of extra money for special education. It really would have filled a huge amount of our gaps. And it did this by raising the multipliers districts get for kids getting special ed services on top of their general education apportionment. It would have raised the multiplier from 1.2x to over 1.5x. So a big percentage increase.  

Second, it would have given funding to the state superintendent's office, OSPI, to continue projects that encourage inclusion and to address disproportionality. 

Third, it would have removed the percentage cap on funding for kids that are getting special ed services, which has been incrementally raised over the years, but really, many in the disability community consider it to be a real offense to say that you're only going to fund a certain percentage of disabled students in your schools. Every kid who's identified with a disability needs to be served and therefore should be funded by the state. 

Fourth, there's a technical fix in that bill to make sure that there isn't a penalty for districts that do a better job including kids getting special ed services into gen ed classrooms. 

Fifth, it tells OSPI to develop a statewide IEP system so that we can start addressing some of our difficulties in special education on a larger scale.  

Sixth, there's a decrease in the safety net threshold. The safety net is a pot of money that kicks in for kids whose costs are significantly more than the services for other kids. This especially comes into play for students who are sent out of state or to, like, a residential school. And so the threshold defines at what point the state will kick in money, which is really pretty strange, because the district is just left funding the gap in between. This bill would have lowered the threshold, making that money available for more kids. 

And lastly, 1310 would have allowed these safety net payments to go out quarterly, which helps especially smaller districts, who are having to front that whole cost and then get repaid later. It's very difficult for budgeting.

So a ton of improvements to the special education funding system that had been asked for for a very long time. They were all in there. 

[00:09:00] Megan Larkin: Yes. And I think it's important to remember all that stuff that Christie just said. Because those are the things that we want. And at the end of the day, those things can be shoved into all kinds of different bills. At this point in this session, I think it's important to remind ourselves of that. Because tragedy can befall bills, such as 1310, RIP. 

[00:09:08] Christie Robertson: Do you want to talk about 1357, Megan? 

[00:09:09] Megan Larkin: Yes. 1357, at least in its original form, was woefully inadequate. So just for context, SPS's special education budget gap is $74 million. And I think 1357 would have added something like a $100 million dollars total, for the entire state. So it was just, it wasn't enough. There was no real OSPI inclusion funding, just funding for 25 pilot programs. No statewide IEP, no cap removal, no quarterly safety net. The safety net threshold barely budged.

So a lot of people started freaking out when, “Oh no, 1310 is off the schedule. And we've got 1357.” And, you could really understand that, right? Like it's heartbreaking.

[00:10:08] Christie Robertson: Oh yeah, And about half of the community, I would say, started madly writing to everybody saying, “put 1310 back”. And another half of the community said, “take all the stuff from 1310 and put it in 1357”. And what ended up happening was that a lot of the stuff from 1310, in a drastically reduced way, got added to 1357 in executive session.

[00:10:36] Megan Larkin: Yep. And to give folks a context around this: like, obviously I haven't had one on one heart to hearts with the House Appropriations committee, but what I would bet happened is that they took one look at the fiscal note for 1310 as it came to them and they were like, "Nope. that's billions and I see the budget deficit and we're just not going to do billions. So we're going to either strip 1310 way back or add some stuff to 1357 and beef it up a bit." So even if we had saved 1310, it wouldn't really have been saving 1310, if that makes sense. 

[00:11:21] Christie Robertson: Right. It might've turned into basically what 1357 is now.

[00:11:27] Megan Larkin: Yeah, exactly. Like I think they were gonna give us what's in 1357. Whether that stuff is in 1357 or in 1310 doesn't matter as much, 'cause we're focusing on the stuff.

[00:11:42] Christie Robertson: If you're tracking 1310 and you've got your email alerts on, you can take those off and put your email alerts on 1357. Cause that's what we'll be watching from here on out in the house.

[00:11:54] Megan Larkin: Yes.

[00:11:55] Christie Robertson: Let's talk about what was added to 1357. There was one piece that has not been in any of the other funding bills which was related to isolation of kids. First of all, I should say that the restraint and isolation bills in the House and the Senate both died on Friday, as they are wont to do. 

But Representative Callen, who has sponsored the House bill for the last three years, she is also on the Appropriations Committee. And she managed to get one tiny piece of her bill into 1357. And that piece is that it would request OSPI to develop a plan to prohibit isolation of K-5 kids by 2032.

[00:12:43] Megan Larkin: Wow. 

[00:12:55] Christie Robertson: So, that would be seven years from now, which tells me that kids who are born today may still be forced into isolation rooms before that plan comes to fruition. So what I've been trying to focus my advocacy on this session is the 0.5% set aside for OSPI to develop its inclusionary practices. And that is in all the special ed funding bills that are alive right now. So it's very important to keep that in.

[00:13:23] Megan Larkin: Yes, totally agree. And the thinking around that is, if they do get this inclusionary practices training, that will mean that teachers will have alternatives to isolation and restraint.

[00:13:36] Christie Robertson: Yes. Yeah, nobody ever wants to isolate or restrain a child. Those are practices that happen when a kid is escalated, and when teachers are under-resourced and don't have the training or the support to essentially prevent escalation. And there's lots of great tactics that have been developed that can help kids to really feel much better in school and not go through that escalation process.  

One of the main people developing these methods and helping people use them is Ross Greene, who has really transformed a lot of districts around the country in terms of reducing their use of isolation and restraint. If anybody is at all interested in the topic of better ways to manage children who have big behaviors, look up Ross Greene's work at livesinthebalance.org. And it's really just remarkable to try to shift your mindset. It changed a ton how I interact with my kids. And the teachers I know who have used it say the same thing. 

So I'm really happy to say that OSPI is working with Lives in the Balance as part of the inclusionary work that they're doing now under a budget proviso.

And so those are the practices that really help dramatically reduce restraint and isolation and make everybody feel better at school, the kids and the adults. So that's why we need to keep that OSPI funding in there.

[00:15:17] Megan Larkin: Yes. It's so important.

[00:15:20] Christie Robertson: So that was added to the bill. 

Also, quarterly safety net payments and the statewide IEP system. And the technical fix that penalized districts with more inclusion. But the multiplier increases are just abysmal. For K-12, the multiplier goes from 1.12 to 1.18 and 1.06 to 1.09, depending on how much the kids are in the classroom. 

[00:15:46] Megan Larkin: That is crazy.

[00:15:48] Christie Robertson: Yeah. Tiny. 

And, doesn't remove the freakin’ cap! Which is a reversal, as you were saying. Used to be the House that was in favor of removing the cap. And now it seems to be the Senate.

[00:16:04] Megan Larkin: Yeah, which reminds me, there is still a Senate special education bill, which is now on its second substitution. So technically it's second substitute Senate bill 5263, which is sponsored by Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and Minority Leader John Braun. Henceforth, I will refer to it as 5263, because wow, is that a mouthful.

This is the Senate version of 1310. It did make it out of Ways and Means in a substituted form that also got scaled back. the multiplier would be 1.32 across the board. So it's just a scaled back version of its former self.

[00:16:53] Christie Robertson: And it does remove the cap.

[00:16:54] Megan Larkin: Yes, it removes the cap and it has that crucial funding in there for OSPI to do training around inclusionary practices. 

[00:17:03] Christie Robertson: Yes, and it lowers the safety net threshold more. So there's a couple of important ways that it's better than the House bill right now.

[00:17:14] Megan Larkin: Yep. And I think it's also important to flag again who's sponsoring that bill. I think that's going to help it move. Because the next hurdles have to do with the Rules committee, which we'll talk about a little bit later, but basically it's just leadership exercising control over what ultimately gets voted on. And if leadership is sponsoring a bill, that ups the chances of it getting out of Rules.

[00:17:46] Christie Robertson: That's right. Because this bill is sponsored by Senator Pedersen and Senator Braun, it is relatively sure to get to the floor and get a hearing and a vote.

[00:17:56] Megan Larkin: Yep.

MSOC

[00:17:58] Christie Robertson: So let's talk about MSOC. 

[00:18:00] Megan Larkin: Yes, MSOC,

[00:18:01] Christie Robertson: Materials, supplies, and operating costs. Keeping the lights on money.

[00:18:06] Megan Larkin: Yes, another high drama heartbreaker in the House.

[00:18:10] Christie Robertson: Absolutely. 

[00:18:12] Megan Larkin: So, MSOC still lives, which I guess is good?

[00:18:16] Christie Robertson: I guess it lives? It's barely recognizable. 

[00:18:21] Megan Larkin: Yeah, We're both being tentative about this, because it went down from about a 20% bump in MSOC funding for districts to a 0.3% bump. Which is like, what?? 

[00:18:38] Christie Robertson: And we went back and forth. We were like, “no, it must be a 3% bump.” No. It is a 0.3% increase.

[00:18:46] Megan Larkin: Yeah. 

[00:18:47] Christie Robertson: Which is almost like, what's the point? Here's what Rep Couture said. 

[00:18:52] Rep Travis Couture: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Respectfully asking for a No. I guess I'm a little confused with this amendment, why we would even need a bill. With the amount left over afterwards, we're basically spreading pennies across our school districts when they're struggling right now.

[00:19:07] Christie Robertson: I think a lot of people were very angry about this. 

[00:19:12] Megan Larkin: Yeah. Rightfully so.

[00:19:14] Christie Robertson: Yeah. Mia Gregerson proposed that amendment very matter of factly.

[00:19:20] Rep Mia Gregerson: “Yeah um, you know, you've seen a lot of amendments um, on bills this week uh, to reduce the cost in order for us to really make sure that we have a balanced budget. And that's what this is attempting to do. This has nothing to do with the importance of the work and the importance of the topic and the commitment to this bill. I urge you to pass this amendment. Thank you.”

[00:19:38] Christie Robertson: But, wow.

[00:19:40] Megan Larkin: Yeah, so just to put that in a little more perspective, the original bill, it was $300 additional per student, and now it's $5.55 cents, additionally, per student. That is crazyA That's not gonna touch this ginormous gap that we have in right now. MSOC statewide is underfunded by $613.7 million. A 0.3% bump is not gonna do a whole lot. 

I'm trying to tell myself to stay optimistic, because you CAN add things back into a bill. Funding dials that have been turned down CAN be turned up. Theoretically, later on in the process, this bill could be, like, raised to a non-ridiculous amount of funding and have some of the other stuff that we liked added back in. But it is harder to add things back into a bill than it is to strip them out.

[00:20:49] Christie Robertson: Yeah, so before we've even gotten to the floor in the House of Origin, this bill is down to a 0.3% increase per student. And advocates weren't the only ones who were upset. 

We're just going to play part of the roll call on the vote. The vote on this counts as high drama in the House Appropriations Committee. It almost didn't pass out. Lots of protest votes Democrats. With a last-minute change from Pollet.

[00:21:03] House Appropriations Committee: ...Peterson? Peterson votes aye. Pollet? Nay, without recommendation. Pollet votes nay, without recommendation. Rude? Do not pass. Rude votes nay, do not pass. Ryu? Ryu votes aye. Ryu votes aye. Springer? Springer votes aye. Stonier? Stonier votes nay without recommendation. Street? Street votes aye. Tye? Tye votes aye. Therringer? Aye. Therringer votes aye. 

Callan? [pause] No without recommendation. Callan votes nay without recommendation.

[members mumbling]

[00:21:45] Chair Timm Ormsby: Does any member wish to change their vote? Mr. Glatz, will you uh, 

[members mumbling]

[00:21:53] Rep Mia Gregerson: Who's changed their vote? 

[members mumbling]

[00:21:58] Chair Timm Ormsby: Will you please announce the tally? 

[00:22:00] Glatz: Mr. Chair, there are 15 ayes, 16 nays, and zero excused. 

[00:22:04] Rep Mia Gregerson: They want to change their vote. Well then say it! 

[members mumbling]

Put your mic on! 

[00:22:12] Chair Timm Ormsby: Representative Pollet? 

[00:22:13] Rep Gerry Pollet: Yes, I'd write to change my vote from Nay without recommendation to Yes. 

[00:22:22] Glatz: Representative Pollet votes Aye. 

[00:22:26] Chair Timm Ormsby: Does any member wish to change their vote? Mr. Glatz, will you please announce the tally? 

[00:22:35] Glatz: The tally is now 16 ayes, 15 nays, and 0 excused. By your vote, Substitute House Bill 1338 is reported out of the committee with a Do Pass recommendation.

[00:23:02] Megan Larkin: Yeah. It's a shell of its former self. And that is sad. 

[00:23:05] Christie Robertson: So back to the Senate again. 

[00:23:12] Megan Larkin: Yep. Senate bill was decreased, but not as drastically. Like basically all the dials were turned down.

[00:23:17] Christie Robertson: Yeah, we were not liking the Senate bill because it was 10% increase instead of 20% and now it's decreased to 6%. But 6% is a hell of a lot more than 0.3%.

[00:23:29] Megan Larkin: Yeah. So yeah, go 5192, I guess.

[00:23:33] Christie Robertson: I guess.

[00:23:34] Megan Larkin: Yeah, I think we're both sounding a little bit dejected this episode because it is so heartbreaking to advocate for stuff, tell our stories, do all of the right things, and it's still is a 0.3% increase, or the bill that you love dies. It's a really heartbreaking process, and I just want to acknowledge that.

[00:24:00] Christie Robertson: Yeah.

[00:24:01] Megan Larkin: Also, though, I want to say that it IS a marathon, not a sprint. And there are still things we can do. Like it is not over until it's over. I was talking to somebody the other day who witnessed in the last several hours of a legislative session, they substituted in the contents of a whole other bill into a shell of a bill, and their thing got passed. Like, right down to the wire. And that's not super common, but it happens. And it definitely isn't going to happen if we get dejected and stop with our advocacy. So we've got to figure out a way to soldier on.

What's next? Rules Committee

[00:24:46] Christie Robertson: Okay. So that's where we stand. We're rooting for the MSOC bill in the Senate, 5192. And the special ed bill in the Senate, 5263. We are disappointed by and hope to see improved 1357 for special ed in the House and 1338 for MSOC in the House. 

So what happens next with these bills, Megan?

[00:25:16] Megan Larkin: Right now all of the bills are sitting in the Rules committee. I don't think we've talked about Rules here before, but both the House and the Senate have a Rules committee, and it's perhaps most useful to think about that as leadership acting as gatekeepers. So they decide what's going to make it to the floor and what's going to die in Rules. 

[00:25:42] Christie Robertson: You can watch a Rules Committee meeting in the Senate. They don't air them in the House, 

[00:25:48] Megan Larkin: Each member of the committee gets to select two or three bills that will move on to the next steps in the process.

[00:25:55] Christie Robertson: ...at each rules committee meeting. Which, up to now, have been about once a week. And I don't know if they increase it at this point or not.

[00:26:03] Megan Larkin: Yeah, I don't know either. 

[00:26:05] Christie Robertson: It reminds me of when you're picking teams from a lineup, like all the bills are lined up and saying, “pick me, pick me!” 

[00:26:09] Megan Larkin: An important deadline to remember is the cutoff date for passage out of the house of origin is 5 PM on Wednesday, March 12th. So right now there's still plenty of time before the March 12th cutoff. But we're going to be keeping a close eye and seeing if there is any opportunity to advocate around these bills.

[00:26:40] Christie Robertson: So after they get picked, then they go to the floor. 

[00:26:42] Megan Larkin: Then they go to the floor.

[00:26:44] Christie Robertson: And there's two steps on the floor. There's what's obscurely called the “second reading”, and that's where they do the amendments and substitutions and debate.

[00:26:54] Christie Robertson: And then, what they call the “third reading” is the roll call where everybody votes. And that's what has to be done by March 12th.

[00:27:04] Megan Larkin: Yes. So to recap, the rules committee is where our big three Bills such as they are are all parked and it's the gatekeeper. leadership will deploy these bills to the floor or not in an order that they feel is going to be most expeditious to their larger agenda. 

[00:27:26] Christie Robertson: And I have an update since we recorded this episode. On Monday, both 5192, the Senate MSOC bill, and 5263, the Senate special ed bill, got moved out of the Rules committee and are waiting for a hearing on the floor.

That's week eight of the Big 3 Briefing. 

[00:27:53] Megan Larkin: Next week we will keep you updated on any floor action that has happened or what's going on in the Rules committee. It's starting to get to the point in session where things get pretty crazy pretty fast. So stay tuned.

[00:28:07] Christie Robertson: I guess we'll be facing that House of Origin cutoff next week. 'cause it's next Wednesday. 

[00:28:13] Megan Larkin: Oh, wow.

[00:28:13] Christie Robertson: And then, I guess next Thursday is when the crossover will happen and they'll start hearing the bills from the opposite house.

[00:28:22] Megan Larkin: Yep.

[00:28:23] Christie Robertson: Alright, You can find our show notes and transcripts at rainydayrecess.org.

[00:28:29] Megan Larkin: And please let us know what your thoughts or questions are about any of these bills or the legislature, and you can email us at hello@rainydayrecess.org.

[00:28:42] Christie Robertson: Stay curious, stay cozy, and join us next time on Rainy Day Recess.