BILL REQ. #:  H-4421.1 

Read first time 01/16/08.   Referred to Committee on Education.

     AN ACT Relating to promoting geography education; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that too few people understand the rich learning opportunities presented by the field of geography. Geography is more than places on a map. Geography addresses global connections, people and cultures, and economics and environments. Our young people need to know geography in order to understand today's world and succeed in tomorrow's. But students do not have enough opportunities to explore and learn geography. A national geographic survey shows that half of young Americans cannot locate world powers like Japan and India. Twenty percent cannot locate the Pacific Ocean. Without geography, our children are not ready for the world. With geography, children have the power of global knowledge. Geography education offers a wealth of opportunities to integrate instruction and learning across disciplines such as art, music, dance, history, science, economics, and languages, and to build skills in inquiry, research, analysis, reading, and writing. Therefore the legislature intends to support an endowment for geography education in Washington state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 28A.300 RCW to read as follows:
     Subject to funds appropriated for this purpose, the office of the superintendent of public instruction shall contract with a national organization to establish, maintain, and operate an endowment for the promotion of geography education in Washington state. The national organization must have experience operating geography education endowments in other states and must provide equal nonstate matching funds to the state funds provided in the contract. All funds in and any interest earned on the endowment shall be used exclusively for geography education programs including, but not limited to, curriculum materials, resource collections, and professional development institutes for teachers and administrators. The national organization must have an established affiliated advisory committee in the state to recommend local projects to be funded by the endowment. The contract shall require that the organization report annually to the superintendent on the recipients of endowment funds and the amounts and purposes of expenditures from the fund.