Prepared by Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org March 4th marked the 55th day of a 105-day session, leaving only seven weeks to go before lawmakers will wrap up the business of the 2023 regular session of the 68th Legislature. The House worked late several nights and on Saturday, finally adjourning at 2:15 AM Sunday morning. The Senate…

Prepared by Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org   The Legislature is now on the downward slope towards the end of session in April, with the second deadline of Friday, February 24 ending the journey for many policy bills with fiscal impacts to the state. Bills with fiscal impacts to local governments or school districts usually don’t get similar…

Following on the success of our virtual Focus on Advocacy Week, during which PTA members sent over 3300 messages, advocates came to Olympia on February 20 to meet with their legislators. Members who met with legislators can let WSPTA know how the discussion went by filling out the meeting summary form.  PTA members also had…

Prepared by Susan Baird-Joshi, sbaird@wastatepta.org and Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Washington State PTA, the state’s oldest and largest child advocacy organization supports House Bill 1473.   According to the bill report, some of the revenues generated by this legislation would go to the Education Legacy Trust Account, an important source of ongoing funding for K-12 education.  Washington…

Prepared by Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Friday, February 17 was the final day for bills in policy committees to “stay alive” and under consideration during the 2023 legislative session. Of course, there are always a few exceptions, but for the most part, the deadline signals the end of the line, at least for this year. Keep…

Prepared by Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Friday, February 17 is the deadline by which bills referred to policy committees must have passed out of committee to remain under consideration. While there are always exceptions, for the most part, this is a significant deadline and bills that were introduced in the previous week or haven’t had a…

February 5, 2023 Prepared by Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org   Last week SSB 5174, the Senate’s solution to closing the transportation funding gap had a public hearing in the Senate Ways & Means Committee. Testimony was mostly favorable, with some districts calling out issues with private contractors providing transportation services and the requirement for private contractors…