What Would I Like to See Out of the Upcoming Legislative Session?

True confession time: when it comes to political activism, I really don't enjoy getting people elected. I'm glad when the folks that I'm pulling for win their races, but doorbelling, phone banking, and the like just aren't my strength. I'm good with the people who know me and my politics, but with the cold calling? Not so much.

On the other hand, I love the legislative process. Watching a bill come to life, seeing it get shepherded through the House and Senate on its way to the Governor's desk, and watching all the battles along the way? That's my idea of a good time. It's why I like my work with the Members Lobbying Team for the WEA so well; getting to go to Olympia and pitch our local legislators directly is a neat, neat thing that everyone should try at least once.

A few weeks ago JL, frequent commentator here on the blog, emailed and asked what bills I'd like to see come up this session. His challenge was to come up with a small one that a freshman legislator might be able to sneak through, something productive yet cheap, and another bill that could be system changing, expensive as hell, and cause fistfights. It's a fun time for this kind of thinking, what with all the big school news coming out in the past few weeks, so here are some thoughts:

• Mandating that Dish and DirectTV carry TV Washington: OK, you probably couldn't make it a mandate, but consider--anyone in the state who has cable TV can get TV Washington and see the legislature in action directly, but for those wide swaths of Washington that don't get cable (I live in one of them), you can't get TVW. Sure, it's online, but those same places that don't get cable also don't get reliable internet connections. If Dish can carry my three local PBS stations, MyNetwork TV, and the local Shop at Home channel, why not TV Washington? Northwest Cable News would be nice, too. Maybe the language of the bill could be something along the lines of asking the management of TVW to explore making an agreement with the satellite TV companies, language that wouldn't be enforceable but would still get the point across.
  
  
  
• Widening the definition of a high needs school to include schools with high military populations: Why? For the National Boards bonus. There's a lot of work going on right now with the Compact on the Military Child, where states are acknowledging that military kids have unique needs and challenges; why not have Washington take the lead on the issue and give the schools that serve those kids a bonus to be able to attract the best teachers? Right now NBPTS certified teachers can make an extra $5,000 a year for having the certificate, and another $5,000 on top of that if they're in a "challenge" school; if you included schools with high military populations in that challenge pool, you'd end up spending more on military kids by default. That's not a bad thing.
  
  
• Excusing public schools from having to pay the gas tax: Rep. McCune introduced a bill to this point in the last session, and it really is a good idea. Consider: right now the state funds school transportation. Part of this money is used to pay for gas, which is taxed, with the tax money going back to the state to pay for things. Why not just clip the circle and save some effort?
  
  
• Get rid of the laws mandating health screenings: I know that there was an effort to get rid of the scoliosis screening, though I'm not sure if it passed or not; this memo from OSPI makes it look like it was still a requirement for this school year. The State Board of Health has information that makes it look like the screening is completely unnecessary, and I agree. If it's not gone, it should be.
  
  That said, I'd widen this to include hearing and vision screenings as well. They're manpower intensive efforts that don't really catch all that many kids. Some schools in high poverty areas might want to keep it going, but for those that don't necessarily gain much from the screening, why make it a requirement?
  
  
• Establishing a master tracking system for all kids in Washington Schools. Please save the mark of the beast talk for a later date, but consider: we will never really know who the dropouts in this state are until we can follow the schools that they've attended, are attending, and aren't attending. If a student leaves school, but enrolls in an on-line school that they never finish, are they a dropout? If a migrant student goes to 4 different high schools in their four years, and never finishes at their last one but says that they're going to a different one, how do you know?
  
  There would be some cost to this, sure, but with WSIPC and Skyward becoming the coin of the realm I think it's doable now in a way that it's never been before.

I've some other ideas kicking around as well, but that's a good start.

What would you like to see the legislature accomplish this year?