H-1549.1  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 1759

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State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Representatives Schoesler, Thompson, Mielke and Sherstad

Read first time 02/07/97.  Referred to Committee on Education.

Eliminating the state board of education.

    AN ACT Relating to eliminating the state board of education; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that the governance of our current education system is overly fragmented and decentralized.  This fragmentation has led to excessive bureaucracy and regulation of schools to the point where the effective delivery of education services is overshadowed by reporting and compliance requirements which deplete precious human and financial resources.

    The legislature also finds that the many governance units with influence over education issues are systematically reducing the locus of control for education decisions.  It is the desire of the legislature that the governance of our education system rest primarily with elected local school board officials held accountable by their constituency, yet subject to minimum oversight by a primary unit of governance.

    Increasingly, schools are faced with new rules which relate only tangentially to the education process and adversely impact the effective delivery of education services in the classrooms.  As schools attempt to respond to these changes, their primary role as educators is reduced to that of a reporting and monitoring entity which must secondarily provide education services.  Many new rules reach far beyond the scope of those which should be adopted by a state education governing entity and severely restrict the authority of those charged with the delivery of education services to exercise their professional judgment to do what is best for the children in their schools.

    In order to eliminate much of this unnecessary and excessive regulation, restore locus of control to local school boards, and improve the level of education services provided to students, the legislature intends to restructure the education governance system of our state by eliminating the state board of education, reassigning a number of their duties to more appropriate entities, and eliminating those which are excessively regulating our schools.

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