Advocacy Action Updates

As the legislature wraps up its regular session here is something we should be aware of via Carolyn:

“Two things we do know for sure -- MSOC dollars will increase and it will be done in a special session.  As for which version will prevail, I would say at this point it will end up somewhere in between.

 The House Budget allocates $405, 286,000 for MSOC.  The Senate allocates $457,378,000.  So at this point we would hope they lean toward the Senate version on MSOC.  But the Senate strips $72 mil out of CTE so if you want CTE, you may want the House's MSOC version.

  It's all going to depend on the negotiations, etc...

 If WLMA feels that asking for a higher MSOC amount (knowing that the MSOC amount is going to increase significantly regardless) they can do that but it may be at the expense of other programs.

 The total dollars for education are going to get higher by about $1 billion.  Most of that money is going to more teacher staffing (which could include teacher librarians) and MSOC (which includes library materials).  Remember, the money is "allocated" not mandated so the district can take as much of that money as it wants and put it into libraries.

Our challenge if we determine that we want to ask for one version of a budget over another is that the amount going to education will probably remain pretty close to the same so we will be asking for money to be moved from one part of education to another.

Let me know if you want to have T-Ls calling in for the higher MSOC amount.”

    Here is where I can also join with Craig in a “call to action” to be ready to lobby your administrator for more resources, especially with CCS. My principal was willing to come take a tour of the library to see how I’ve been preparing for CCS and one of his questions was if we had enough non-fiction books for every student to have one in his/her desk at school. This would also be true at the district level. As Craig said so well:

“ The efficient and equitable access to resources through the school library is the best way to deliver effective and accountable resources to match district goals.”

Here is Carolyn’s latest news to share with you:

“Below is a link to the implementation schedule for HB 2051 which is the first step to funding McCleary.

Our plan this summer and through the fall and winter needs to be getting our study ready to go and meeting with Legislators to start moving the T-L staffing levels up to 1.0 FTE per prototype school.”

She also notes it’s important to remember that the MSOC $$ (Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs) includes money that can be used for library materials as well.

http://app.leg.wa.gov/m/cmd/Handler.ashx?MethodName=getdocumentcontent&documentId=6pYgJr3vSK4&att=true

Craig will be leading the efforts for the study.

SENATE BUDGET PASSED, HOUSE BUDGET RELEASED

As you are aware, the Senate released and passed their version of the budget last week and the House is now looking to pass their version of the budget this week.   Once the House passes its budget, the real negotiations will begin to try and find the compromise between the two.  Also weighing in during these negotiations will be Governor Inslee to try and ensure that whatever final budget passes is something he feels he could support too.

The biggest key difference between the two budgets overall is not the amount of total money, it is the fact that the House relies on about $1.3 billion in new revenue and the Senate does not have any new revenue.  All of the House's new revenue relies on removing exemptions or preferences, or accommodating court decisions.  I think this is where you will see the compromise first -- can both houses agree on some new revenue -- then the spending adjustments will follow

Specifically for teacher librarians there are some key things to note:

• Both budgets maintain the prototype school funding model established in HB 2261 back in 2009 and both maintain including certificated teacher librarians
  
• Both budgets add about $1.4 billion to public school spending to cover the McCleary decision
  
• Both budgets increase Materials, Supplies and Operating cost allocations for schools.  The Senate increase is greater.
  
• Both budget put dollars into reading improvement for K-3 students.
  
• Some differences include:
  
• The House expands implementation of All Day Kindergarten more aggressively than the Senate
  
• The Senate puts more money into Pupil Transportation
  
• The House puts more money into the Teacher, Principal Evaluation Training
  
• The House allows for teacher salary allocation increases.  The Senate does not.
  
• The House funds increased instructional hours.  The Senate does not.
  
• The House relies on significant savings by shutting down ALE programs that are not district based, site based or considered online.
  
• The House has more aggressive dropout recovery proposals.
  

For teacher-librarians specifically, the impact of either budget is going to depend on your school mix and the impact of the allocations in your district.  Moving Teacher-Librarians to the 1.0 per prototype school level is not happening this biennium because it was felt that the MSOC advancement was more important.  However, we will need to start our work now to make sure that the 2015-2017 budget starts to increase library resources.  Overall there will be significantly more money going to public education which will hopefully take some of the financial pressure off of schools.  The difference will be what strings are attached by the state to the money in the end.

It is possible for the Legislature to adjourn on time if the negotiations get going quickly and the legislators are motivated.  We'll see if that happens.  In the meantime, here is the link to the LEAP page where you can get information on all the budget proposals.  I will try to keep sending updates as they happen or at least "notable negotiation happenings."  I'm also attaching the updated report on where education bills are now.

The major tax increases in the House Budget that the public may care about include:

•  An extension of the beer tax that was set to expire in June with an expansion to some microbeers
  
• The extension of the .3 business & occupation tax surcharge on service businesses that was set to expire this year
  
• Removal of the sales tax exemption for bottled water
  
• Removal of the sales tax exemption for non-residents.
  

There is a request for $500,000 to continue development of the open ed resources library at OSPI in the House budget. Its is not in the Senate budget and will probably will be negotiated lower.

Bill Status Report

Washington Library Media Association

"We are now into the final stages of the Legislative session with bills needing to be out of their second house policy committees by April 3 and the fiscal committees by April 9.  Bills that are left in the education arena are generally considered “necessary to implement the budget” which means they may or may not be subject to these cut off dates.  While none of the bills directly impact school libraries or teacher-librarians, many of the bills make changes to policies that impact teachers generally which would include teacher-librarians.  Some are still highly controversial, including SB 5242 regarding policies impacting teacher placement.  Others are controversial but seem to be headed for negotiated agreements, such as SB 5237 – the third grade reading accountability bill.  Agreements on bills like this, however, will be subject to money available in the budget ."

Carolyn provides a list of the bills she is following, including dates for their hearings. Several of you have written me for the links previously- please do so this time, and I will forward you what she sent me, since embedding them directly into my text for the listserve doesn't work. 

Here is a summary of the report Carolyn provided (via SKYPE and a written report) to the Executive Board at the meeting at CWU on March 16. As always, if you would like links to the bills or any other information, please let me know!

   Some education policy bills have moved forward in both the House and Senate. From the Senate: accountability for third grade reading levels, changing expulsion procedures and grading schools on an A-F scale.From the House: closing the achievement gap and enhancing dropout prevention. Both moved bills to enhance academic acceleration and performance and the Governor's proposed commission on STEM learning.

    With 2 billion dollars needed to meet the McCleary ruling, Carolyn is predicting talk about cuts (but not to education) and closing various loopholes and exceptions rather than tax increases. At this point the prototype school model that includes a teacher-librarian is still intact, but she is watching this closely.

       Governor Inslee is ready to announce his 1 billion dollar funding increase proposal on Monday, March 18th and Carolyn will provide us details. Last week the House Republican Caucus unveiled their "Fund Education First" budget which increases K-12 spending by nearly 1 billion dollars over the previous biennium's spending level, with a focus on some spending for McCleary, phasing in all-day kindergarten and reducing K-3 class sizes.

       Carolyn is also investigating current confusion about sales tax for digital products purchased for school libraries and students' use at school, a potential money- saver.

         A suggestion was made at the meeting, with no legislative issue relating to TLs really needing our attention at this time, that considering the Washington State study of the positive impact of TLs be pursued.

          Please let me know if you would like the links to the bills Carolyn is tracking, press releases, etc.

Sara Glass, Legislative Advocacy Chair

Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School

225 Dennis St SE

Tumwater, WA  98501

360-709-7242

sara.glass@tumwater.k12.wa.us  (please copy/paste rather than clicking on the link to reply)

All bills must pass out of fiscal committees by Friday (if they have fiscal impact) to be considered this legislative session. There are still a lot of education- related bills that Carolyn is tracking, and beginning to prioritize, for our possible consideration or advocacy action. The next milestone will be March 13th, when all remaining bills must pass out of their House of origin. There are 12 bills Carolyn is tracking that relate in some way to revenue for schools, while others focus on early learning, higher education, STEM initiatives and assessment. Teacher-librarians are involved in almost all of these!

• Mark Ray's Letter
  
• Legislative Talking Points 2013
  
• What needs to be done to further improve our Washington's School Libraries
  

Carolyn expressed her thanks to those from WLMA in attendance for the joint WLA/WLMA Library Legislative Day February 15th. She reminded those who couldn't be there to e-mail your legislators while in session and make sure to invite them to your libraries when they return to your districts. If you need "talking points" there are links to the documents from the packet we distributed. If you need paper copies or the bookmarks with the QR link to the video, let me know and I will send these to you for distribution nearer your home and school.

Here is my personal example: after Representative Hunt visited one of my 4th grade classes for their CBA research, students delivered their own ideas for new laws when they visited the capital a couple weeks ago. He missed them, there, due to a meeting, but took the time to write a personal note on each of their letters thanking them for their ideas and participation in state government. I believe that their stories and faces will come to mind now when he thinks "elementary school students" and "Library"!!!

HB 1452 and SB 5237 are two bills Carolyn is considering we track and think about advocating for. Both bills require 3rd graders to have grade- level proficiency prior to entering 4th grade. TLs contribute to student achievement and can foster success for reluctant or struggling readers in collaboration with classroom teachers rather than these bills' emphasis on retention.

Carolyn is awaiting news of who new Governor Inslee's education policy person will be. Then she will meet so "that person can be familiarized with the formidable teacher-librarians we have in the state." :)

And she continues to track a whole lot of other bills for WLMA.

Sara Glass, NBCT