SENATE BILL REPORT

                  ESSB 5169

              As Passed Senate, February 24, 1995

Title:  An act relating to the recommendations of the joint select committee on education restructuring.

Brief Description:  Changing education provisions.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Education (originally sponsored by Senators McAuliffe, Cantu, Pelz, Hochstatter, Drew, A. Anderson, Rasmussen and Kohl; by request of Joint Select Committee on Education Restructuring).

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Education:  1/12/95, 1/24/95 [DPS, DNPS].

Passed Senate, 2/24/95, 45-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5169 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass. 

  Signed by Senators McAuliffe, Chair; Pelz, Vice Chair; Gaspard and Rasmussen.

Minority Report:  Do not pass substitute. 

  Signed by Senators Finkbeiner, Hochstatter and Johnson.

Staff:  Susan Mielke (786-7422)

Background:  In 1993, the Legislature created the Joint Select Committee on Education Restructuring.  One of the committee's duties was to review K-12 public education laws to identify laws that inhibit the achievement of a performance-based education system in Washington State, and report to the Legislature by November 15, 1994.  From July 1993 through November 1994, the committee developed review criteria; held a series of public meetings on the laws governing education; developed draft recommendations; distributed the recommendations for public comment; held public hearings on the recommendations; revised the recommendations; and submitted the recommendations to the Legislature.  The bill contains the final recommendations of the committee.

Summary of Bill: The laws governing K-12 education are revised as follows:

Obsolete references and obsolete sections.  Obsolete references to repealed statutes are deleted.  Programs that expire or are replaced by other programs are deleted.  Completed studies and reports are deleted.  Terminology that is no longer used is updated.

Recodifications/technical changes.  Statutes are recodified to more appropriate places in the code, and technical corrections are made.

Unfunded programs.  Programs requiring a specific state appropriation that are not currently receiving state funds are deleted, including:  the dropout prevention and retrieval program, the pilot program on school-based management, model curriculum guidelines, the minority teacher recruitment grant program, the teacher exchange programs, mandated training for evaluators, the cooperating teachers program, the fair start program, the six-plus-sixty volunteer program, school improvement and research projects, the all kids can learn incentive grants, and the international education program.  School districts retain the general authority to establish, or maintain such programs.

Reports.  Selected reporting requirements are deleted.  The initial responsibility for reviewing which data is necessary to measure the progress of education reform is shifted from the Joint Select Committee on Education Restructuring to the Commission on Student Learning.  The committee retains the authority to make recommendations to the Legislature.

Permissive language.  Selected language permitting or encouraging specific programs or activities by school districts is deleted.  However, school districts retain the general authority to establish or maintain such programs.

Mandates on school districts.  The requirement that school officials and employees deliver books, papers, and moneys to their successor is repealed.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  None.

Testimony Against:  The repeal of the requirement that districts provide information about job sharing should be removed from the bill because families still need this kind of support and protection from discrimination.  The repeal of the requirement that all certificated employees be given at least a 30-minute lunch period should also be removed from the bill because this is a reasonable provision that provides protection for teaching staff.

Testified:  Judy Hartman, WEA (con).

House Amendment(s):  Amendatory language allowing districts and certificated staff to agree to different lunch arrangements other than the 30 minute duty-free lunch required by statute is deleted.  The current statutory requirement that school districts provide job sharing information is deleted, but districts are required to have job sharing policies.