Press Room
Education issues a priority in legislative session
The Washington State Legislature is in full swing and several education issues will be taken forward during this session. To assure that the critical needs of education are addressed, school superintendents from throughout Southwest Washington recently spent a morning discussing three important topics which they hope legislators will take forward:
- Special Education—The current funding formulas do not meet the needs of every child's Individualized Educational Plan, especially children with extremely high-cost needs; these children will not meet their learning goals without greater state assistance.
- Education Reform and Assessment—Discussion focused on the costs associated with and the issues surrounding remedial education for students who are required to re-take the WASL in order to graduate.
- Transportation and Non-Employee Related Costs—Fuel costs have increased by up to 200% percent for some districts, making it difficult to fund student transportation. In addition, escalating non-employee related costs such as utilities, technology and the day-to-day operational costs are greatly under-funded.
Six legislators met with the superintendents in round-table discussions to hear about the education priorities. Following the discussion, legislators were asked what they could do to help advance the issues they heard about from educators.