S-3542

AN ACT Relating to accountability and collaboration in higher education and K-12 education; and adding new sections to chapter 28B.10 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that some students who have recently graduated from high school must enroll in remedial classes at the public colleges and universities before they are ready to begin college work. The legislature also finds that these students should have received basic skills in English, reading, spelling, grammar, and mathematics before graduating from high school. It is the intent of the legislature that students enrolled in remedial classes continue to pay tuition for those classes. It is further the intent of the legislature that the school districts from which these students received their high school diplomas pay some of the cost of providing remedial classes for recent high school graduates. It is also the intent of the legislature that money raised through these charges to school districts be used to pay needy college students to tutor in the public schools of the state.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. By May 1st of each year, each institution of higher education shall provide a report to the office of the superintendent of public instruction. The report shall contain the following information: (1) The numbers of students who graduated from a Washington high school within three years of enrolling in a state-supported precollege level class in mathematics, reading, grammar, spelling, writing, or English; (2) the types of precollege classes in which each student is enrolled; and (3) the Washington high school from which each student graduated. Each institution of higher education shall also report information on precollege class enrollment to the Washington school district from which each student enrolled in a precollege class graduated.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. By June 30th of each odd-numbered year, the state board for community and technical colleges shall establish and report to the superintendent of public instruction an average per student instructional cost for state-supported developmental and precollege classes offered in the community and technical colleges. The classes shall include, but need not be limited to precollege classes in a mathematical science, grammar, reading, spelling, writing, and English. Classes in study skills shall not be included.

By June 30th of each odd-numbered year, each of the four-year universities and colleges shall report to the office of the superintendent of public instruction with the average per student instructional cost for state-supported precollege classes offered by that institution in a mathematical science, English, writing, spelling, grammar, and reading.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A charge shall be assessed to each Washington school district that, within the three years preceding the report required in section 2 of this act, graduated a student attending any state-supported precollege class in English, reading, spelling, grammar, or a mathematical science. At the beginning of the fiscal year following the report described in section 2 of this act, the superintendent of public instruction shall subtract from the allotment of each such school district, an amount equal to the average per student instructional cost of each precollege class attended during the preceding fiscal year by a student who graduated from that school district during the preceding three years. Funding shall first be reduced from nonbasic education funds, unless otherwise requested by the affected school district.

The superintendent of public instruction shall deposit the funds collected under this section in the tutor account created in section 6 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The higher education coordinating board, in consultation with the superintendent of public instruction and other appropriate organizations, shall use the funds in the tutor account to train tutors and to pay college and university students participating in the state work-study program to tutor in the public schools of the state. The funds may be used to pay all or a portion of the salaries of students in the state work-study program.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The tutor account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. Funds collected under section 4 of this act shall be deposited into the account. Expenditures from the account may be used only to pay college and university students in the state work-study program to tutor in state public schools. Only the chair of the higher education coordinating board or the chair's designee may authorize expenditures from the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but no appropriation is required for expenditures.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Sections 1 through 6 of this act are each added to chapter 28B.10 RCW.