Background:

Initiative 732.

Initiative 732 (I-732) was approved by the voters in the November 2000 general election. It requires the state to provide an annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for K-12 teachers and other public school employees, as well as community college and technical college academic employees and classified employees at technical colleges. The COLA is based on the Seattle-area Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the most recently completed calendar year.

In 2003 after the Washington Supreme Court ruled in McGowan v. State regarding interpretation of the state's funding obligation, the statute was enacted to specify that the state must provide funding for cost-of-living increases for K-12 state-funded formula staff units only.

Legislation was enacted to suspend I-732 for the 2003-05 biennium. Therefore, no COLAs were provided for the 2003-04 or 2004-05 school years. However, a salary adjustment was provided that biennium for state formula certificated instructional staff in their first seven years of service.

Legislation again suspended I-732 for the 2009-11 biennium. In addition, Chapter 573, Laws of 2009 (Substitute House Bill 2363) specified that the suspended COLAs in the 2009-11 biennium would be made up in the ensuing biennia. Specifically, statute requires that salary rates must be adjusted such that, by the end of the 2014-15 school year, base salaries used in state allocation formulas are, at a minimum, what they would have otherwise been if COLAs had not been suspended during the 2009-11 biennium.

Initiative 732 COLA adjustments assumed in the 2009-11 maintenance level budget are 4.2 percent for the 2009-10 school year, and 0.6 percent for the 2010-11 school year. According to the November 2011 forecast from the Economic Revenue and Forecasting Council, the Seattle CPI is 0.4 percent for calendar year 2010 (applicable to school year 2011-12) and 1.9 percent for calendar year 2011 (applicable to school year 2012-13).

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Program.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) provides an opportunity for teachers to seek an advanced teaching credential by undertaking a rigorous application process. Once earned, the certification is valid for 10 years. The application process requires candidates to complete 10 assessments that are reviewed by trained educators. The assessments include four portfolio entries that feature teaching practice and six constructed response exercises that assess subject knowledge. The NBPTS program was created in 1987 after several important research reports documented emerging needs for outcomes-based professional development in the teaching profession. The NBPTS program is framed around five core principles which shape the requirements of certification. They include:

Teachers are committed to students and their learning.
Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
Teachers are members of learning communities.

Washington is in its 10th year of participation in the program. In 2000 Washington had 71 NBPTS-certified teachers. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) projects 5,247 in the 2010-11 school year, and nearly 1,450 in 2010-11 candidates in process with portfolios due March 31, 2011.

Additionally, the OSPI offers a conditional loan that funds $2,000 of the $2,500 fee for beginning the process of the NBPTS certification. The loan is competitive and must be repaid once a candidate achieves certification and receives a bonus. The conditional loan was accepted by just under 1,000 candidates in school year 2009-10, and 800 candidates in 2010-11.

The maintenance-level budget for fiscal year 2011 assumes 5,022 teachers will receive the NBPTS base bonuses of $5,090 per teacher the 2010-11 school year, while 1,353 teachers will receive additional $5,000 NBPTS bonuses for teaching in high poverty schools.

Certificated Instructional Staff Salary Schedule.

The state allocates funding to school districts for certificated instructional staff (CIS) based on a salary schedule that is established each year in the state omnibus operating appropriations act (operating budget) and is subject to conditions and limitations contained in the operating budget. Previous salary schedules have contained "increments," under which the schedule includes increased salary allocations for CIS staff as they gain additional years of experience or educational credits. Educational credits are eligible for inclusion in the salary schedule if they meet criteria specified in statute.

House	64	32
Senate	28	16