How About That Simple Majority!

Why was it important? The Seattle PI has the story:

Numerous school levies that would have failed in the past appeared to be passing after Tuesday's elections thanks to a new law that dropped the requirement for 60 percent approval in favor of a simple majority.

In November, Washington voters approved a constitutional amendment lowering the "yes" vote percentage required for approving levies from 60 percent to 50 percent plus one. This was the first election to test the new system.

"Clearly, for many districts, that vote last November has made a huge difference," said Chris Korsmo of the League of Education Voters, which pushed the idea.

In the Yakima Valley, 12 local levy measures all passed, but only about half had 60 percent or more approval.

A big win for the schools in November begets several other wins the following February. How about that?

Update 3/23: The Tacoma News-Tribune on how the Simple Majority helped March elections, too.

The Twisting Career of the Man Who Let the Simple Majority Happen

Without a key vote from Senator Jim Clements out of Yakima, the Simple Majority never would have gotten a chance to go to the voters. He's no longer in the legislature after losing a primary election in the spring; you can read more about what he's done the past 8 months over at The Other Side.

As teachers, we all owe him a big thank you.

educational legislation: 2007 House Bills in review

In 2007, regional media types paid all kinds of attention to the fate of various Washington State educational laws. Joint Resolution 4204, which passed by a Gregoire-thin margin to allow simple majorities for levies, was probably the best-known, while HB 2079 was the most controversial. But lots more were passed. Here are the highlights from the House's year in educational legislation. (I've focused on the elementary and secondary level, with a few postsecondary bills thrown in there as they relate to high school instruction. If I've missed one, let me know.)



Kevin's Law: ESHB 1050
IEP students must be allowed to walk in a grad ceremony with their peers, even if all they receive at the time is a "Certificate of Attendance."


Completing High School at a Community College: HB 1051
The most concise summary comes from Governor Gregoire's partial veto:

Sections 1 through 8 of this bill provide for the development of two pilot programs at community or technical colleges. The programs are intended to support certain students as they work to meet the State's academic standards in reading, writing, mathematics or science. For these students, demonstrating proficiency in one or more of these subjects is the final step in meeting their high school graduation requirements and obtaining a high school diploma. The legislation outlines the student eligibility and program criteria, authorizes the financial support, waives student tuition and fees, and provides for a study of the program's results in two years' time.

Section 9 of the bill creates and recognizes a new state certificate for high school students who do not meet the requirements for a high school diploma, the Certificate of Academic Completion (Certificate). The Certificate may be conferred by school districts to students who meet all state and local requirements for graduation with the exception of passage of one or more of the high school assessments in reading, writing and mathematics. Our students are working very hard to achieve the skills necessary for success in their endeavors beyond high school. By creating the Certificate of Academic Completion we will be sending a message to these students that they do not need basic skills required for the high school diploma. This is wrong.

Get Students Involved: HB 1052
This little bill provides greater access for middle and high school students to the Legislative Advisory Council, plus grants for students to participate in civic education competitions such as Model UN.


Postsecondary Opportunities: HB 1096
Globalization, according to the legislature, requires need-based grants for workers to gain certification or skills training in "high demand occupations" from community or technical colleges.


Book Savings For All: HB 1224
Community colleges were added to the ranks of institutions that must pursue policies that keep book and material costs down, or, at the very least, make options and alternatives publicly known.


Cash for Computers: HB 1280
If I understand this correctly, this bill allows districts to pay for major technology upgrades out of existing "capital projects" levies, instead of having to run a special techno-levy. (Another minor bill, HB 2357, would allow districts to use timber money for capital projects, too.)


Service Credit for ESAs: HB 1432
Might as well quote the bill itself:

Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, the calculation of years of service for occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, nurses, social workers, counselors, and psychologists regulated under Title 18 RCW may include experience in schools and other nonschool positions as occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, nurses, social workers, counselors, or psychologists. The calculation shall be that one year of service in a nonschool position counts as one year of service for purposes of this chapter, up to a limit of two years of nonschool service.

It's only for the salary schedule; retirement counts only school service.


Dealing With the Dropout Problem: HB 1573

Sections 1 through 7 of this bill provide for the development and implementation of a grant program that, through collaborative school district, family and community partnerships and services, support vulnerable students who are at risk of dropping out of middle or high school. The grant program will be called the Building Bridges Program.

This is perhaps the most ambitious attempt the state has made at reducing the dropout rate. I still see this as the problem at the high school level, come low or high WASL.


Defining a Counselor: HB 1670
Up until this year, for all legal intents and purposes, school counselors didn't exist. Now they do.


Agency Shop Fees Clarified: HB 2079
10 + 10 - 10 = 10. Now, which 10 is left? This bill says: not yours, shop fee payer, that the Supreme Court may be mollified. Whew. That was a dire emergency.


Add a Little Spice: HB 2154
Now ESD board members will come up for election in odd, rather than even, years. That oughtta bring out the vote.


Bonus Bonus: HB 2262
Become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, collect $5,000--or more, if you teach in an impoverished district. For me, this was the incentive that tipped the scales away from ProCert to NBPTS. Apparently, a lot of other teachers feel the same way.


Investing in the Common Schools: HB 2396
On the same day she signed the Rainy Day Fund into law, Gregoire also allowed the state to invest its permanent common school fund in equities, in hopes that it would earn at a rate at least equal to inflation.


Killing Gainsharing: HB 2391
On that same day, gainsharing died, and teachers mourned.


Let's Have a Poet Laureate: HB 1279
Why not? By the way, it's Samuel Green.

Contracts: Meh!

Sometimes it really does pay to read the whole article.

The Wednesday edition of the Yakima Herald had this article that talked about the top legislative priorities for area superintendents in the coming legislative session. The three they decided to focus on:

*Students who have not met state standards in reading and writing from the class of 2008, 2009 and 2010 may graduate from high school without an Certificate of Academic Achievement or a Certificate of Individual Achievement. Similar to the requirement for those who have not met the math standard, additional coursework in reading and writing would be required.

* Provide resources to extend student-teacher contact time for high-poverty schools and schools serving high numbers of students whose primary language is not English, who are known as English language learners.

* Initiate legislation to require cultural competence and language acquisition training for all new certified teachers in the state.

Well and good. It's the piece later on in the article that raises an eyebrow:

The superintendents also did not move forward with their proposal to grant some schools with override authority of negotiated teacher contracts because it was deemed too controversial and not feasible at this time.

Several Yakima teachers spoke out against this specific recommendation during a Tuesday night board meeting where Soria presented the final recommendations.

"How does this help students?" asked Aaron McCausland, a science teacher at Davis High School.

Administrators grumble about the contracts with the teachers. It's just the way of the world, a death and taxes sort of thing. Administrators getting together and developing a plan to get around the contract, a plan that they considered taking to the legislature? That's interesting. Interesting indeed.

Consider, too, that Yakima county was the worst in the state when it came to passing the Simple Majority, only slightly better than Garfield County which is 1/45th its size. There's obviously a lot of animosity in Yakima County towards the schools; are the superintendents trying to deflect that onto the unions?

The Simple Majority Blogathon Continues!

Sound Politics looks at it from a conservative standpoint; take the time to read the comments and you'll hear some neat new conspiracy theories, also expounded on here.

Horse's Ass is the blog home of unapologetic liberal David Goldstein, who also hosts a great radio show on KIRO 710 out of Seattle on the weekends. A supporter from the beginning, he shares the good news here.

The Spokane Spokesman-Review weighs in here; you should also read this blog entry to get the context for this quote from the loveable Tim Eyman:

"Three or four million dollars spent, with no opposition, and yet they barely eke out a victory?" he said. "Yeah, voters LOVE tax increases…This is just gasoline on the fire."

I think he's frustrated because voter's love his initiatives but the law doesn't.

Finally, those who wrote in opposition to 4204 made some claims regarding the state's role in funding basic education that they may regret. The Other Side has the Janae Holmquist beat covered, here.

I'll Be Damned

Fellow blogger Jim noted the trend earlier, and Sound Politics has a great analysis of what's going on, but despite the election night results it looks like the Simple Majority just might pass. Narrative from the Seattle Times here. See also Horse's Ass and The Other Side (a personal favorite!) for more commentary.

The engine driving this is King County; they've got a better than 58% approval rate. As I write this (9:45 a.m. on Veteran's Day) 4204 trails by about 2700 votes with 178,000 left to count, 58,000 of which are in King. The returns in Spokane County have also been trending towards positive, going from 53%/47% against on Tuesday to a near tie right now.

It's been a startling comeback from 60,000 votes down on election eve.

can't take the sting away--or can you?

Update 11/17
4204, if the results hold up, passes.

Wow.

I mean, wow.

We might even avoid a machine recount.

I had hopes, but no expectations, for a turnaround. I called the initial result "apparent," in slim hopes that tallies would change as more votes came in.

And they did.




Co-blogger Ryan, who had been cautiously upbeat about HJR 4204's (Simple Majorities for Levies) chances, is pretty upset at its apparent failure:

[And] before anyone tries to tell me I don't get it, don't even start. I own my own home. My wife is self-employed, and we get absolutely reamed every April. I've got a special needs daughter who's eating up a lot of my discretionary income.

But I still believe that every vote should count 1-to-1. When your no vote is worth 50% more than my yes vote, that's giving you more power in a democracy than I have, and that's unfair. The people of Washington had a chance to fix that. Apparently, they prefer minority rules.

This can't be seen as anything other than a total repudiation of Washington students and teachers.

I'm a little less pessimistic. I blame...

• Rising property values, combined with the timing on the property tax assessments, which in the annually measured counties occur so close to the election you can smell tax revolt in the alder-smoked autumn breeze. (The initial rise and fall of the other tax-related initiatives and resolutions supports this thesis.)
• An ineffectual legislature that forces education proponents to rely on litigation and levies to raise cash in an inequitable system invented before I was born, and little changed since then, giving HJ 4204 opponents the ability to say, "Sure, I support education, but I want the legislature to get its rear in gear, even if troubled rural districts suffer in the meantime."
• Education pundits--myself?--for thinking that a successful media campaign translates into sufficient votes.
• The inequity itself. Voters who live in consistently supportive districts might not see the problem for what it is. Voters in troubled districts don't seem to mind.

Do all these add up to a "total repudiation?" I'm not sure.

Doesn't make it hurt less.

Update: The latest vote tally, statewide, claims there are about 490,000 ballots still out there. HJ 4204's "No" tally has slipped to a 30,000 vote lead, from about 60,000 earlier. Paper-thin hope?

Update: The results, as of 4:10 on November 11, are closer than ever--only about 2700 votes separate Approve and Reject. Maybe this one's gonna pull a Gregoire.

Some Good News for the Simple Majority

UPDATE at 10:40 on November 6th: Never mind.

The Washington Poll is a non-partisan survey group run under the auspices of the University of Washington that has been polling the public on the various ballot measures; their results for 4202, the Simple Majority for schools, look positive:

                  Yes No Undecided
Democrat          71% 16% 13%  
Republican        44  45  11
Independent       56  34  10
Puget Sound region  64 26 10
Other part of state  51 37 12

As goes the Sound so goes the state; here's to you, King County.

If you look at "likely voters", it's even better:

    
              Yes  No  Undec 
I – 960       42%  41%  17%  
R – 67        46% 31% 24% 
CA – 8206     62% 16% 22% 
CA – 4204     58% 31% 10% 
Prop – 1      49% 38% 13%

We'll know on Tuesday!