Joe Zarelli's Bad Week

Budget expert? Not this week.

I'm watching the Senate Ways and Means Committee testimony from Wednesday, and the gyrations that Sen. Zarelli is going through to defend crappy, crappy proposals like average daily attendance (ADA) and a 3% cut to salaries is absolutely fascinating.

Why is ADA a loser? Look just east to Idaho, where a study reported that ADA "may occasionally create unexpected and inequitable results in funding for smaller districts and charters." If you're Benge with 6 kids, and one has an unexcused absence, you're screwed in a way that the Seattle School District never will be. On top of that, imagine the next swine flu epidemic and what a legion amount of unexcused absences could do.

The 3% pay cut was blasted by everyone from the Governor to the Superintendent on down. It looks like some of the blame for this falls on the shoulders of Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, who needs better researchers. It's chicken to say that the local districts can figure out how to make that cut work--if you want to cut salaries 3%, do it in the salary schedule.

But you know you can't, because that's a cut to basic education. I'll give them praise for a bipartisan budget, as well as to the House GOP for turning out a budget as well and helping the conversation along, but at the end of the day Murray and Zarelli screwed up to the tune of $350 million dollars, and that doesn't reflect well on either of them.

Read more here, if any.

My Other Favorite Exchange from Inside Olympia

Sen. Zarelli: "Don't give medical care to illegals."

Rep. Hunter: "You're a moron. That will cost more money in the long run."

Sen. Zarelli: "At least I'm proposing ideas, like closing McNeil Island."

Austin Jenkins: "Should we close Larch Mountain, too?"

Sen. Zarelli: "NO! Also, Walla Walla sucks."

Austin Jenkins: "I think they actually send them to Coyote Ridge, which is new and efficient and awesome."

Sen. Zarelli: "Zip it, pinhead. I'm talking with my hands, which proves my sincerity."

Rep. Hunter: "I support closing everything in Sen. Zarelli's district. This seems fair, and wise."

Sen. Zarelli: "You almost lost an election to Mike the Mover."

Rep. Hunter: "Oh, go to hell."

Austin Jenkins: "Let's talk pensions."

Sen. Zarelli: "You work until 85, then we bill your family for you dying on the job."

Rep. Hunter: "Actually, that sounds about right."

Austin Jenkins: "And that's all the time we have for today. Tune in next week!"

Read more here, if any.

WEWEE #4: Synthesis and Evaluation

Dear Lord, but was this ever a busy week on the legislative front. It was Assembly Days over in Olympia, when the members of the state House and Senate get together to hear what's up for the coming session in January, and the many, many committee meetings meant that the discussion of education policy was moving along fast and furious.

Item #1: The Quality Education Council. The final report that is supposed to be delivered to the legislature is coming together, and the televised meetings on TVW last week were pretty interesting viewing. Coverage from the League of Education voters here (Day 1) and here (Day 2).

The piece that got the most attention came right at the very end, when Sen. Joe Zarelli offered an amendment aimed squarely at collective bargaining:

Examine transferring local collective bargaining to the state, including all matters pertaining to compensation, benefits, and employment terms and conditions.

.....and now you've got the WEA gearing up hardcore to get that removed. The discussion happened during the Basic Ed Finance Task Force meetings, too--I remember having a conversation with Skip Priest about it that year--but it withered on the vine there. I'm fairly confident it won't get any traction here, either, but it sounds like the budget situation is making everyone a little bit nuts, so it's hard to say.

The pieces that I'd push you into reading from the QEC website:

• The discussion document that Rep. Priest and Rep. Sullivan put together guided the discussion, and much like with the Basic Ed Finance Task Force you can bet that the final product will look much like what they have here. It morphs into the revised document (courtesy of the WEA; the QEC hasn't officially posted it yet, that I can see).
  
  
• The Achievement Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee issued their recommendations as well, which I find particularly interesting if only for this:
  
  

  The AGOAC recommends that implementing instructional coaches be further investigated. The Committee questions the effectiveness of instructional coaches in increasing student achievement and closing the achievement gap. Data is needed to justify continued funding for this strategy. If this element is funded, the state needs to provide research-based guidelines for effective implementation.

  So what's the deal? Mentors and instructional coaches were two of the higher-ranked items put forward by the National Board Certified teachers during their policy symposium.
  
  
• Lastly, and read this one again after the Governor's budget comes out, the Funding Formula Working Group put out their final report as well. I personally think that this is the make-or-break piece of the whole QEC--whether the financing comes together or not--and all the proposals in the world aren't going to add up to a warm bucket of spit until the revenue situation gets turned around.

Watch it all on TV Washington; it's worth your time.

(Aside: Randy Dorn had some thoughts, too.)

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Item #2: The State Budget. At one point a few weeks ago the terror-inducing news was that the majority of the state budget was off limits to cuts because of either federal law or state commitments, leaving about $9 billion that could be touched. In that amount you'll find things like levy equalization, what's left of I-728, and the basic health plan. During the Ways and Means Committee meetings, though, we found out that the amount of money that could be touched was actually much less: only $7.7 billion out of the $31.4 billion budgeted for the bienium.

That's.......not good.

Coverage from the LEV here, Senator Lisa Brown here, the Washington State Budget and Policy Center here, and Publicola here. The EFF refers back to their 105 Days, 105 Ways project, which is worth a read, and for the most contrarian viewpoint of all, this post from Brainstrom on how there isn't even really a funding crisis.

The Governor is set to release her budget early next week, and she's talking about tax increases so that people don't get their diseased feet cut off, but even with all the talk going on I'm not convinced that these euphamistic "revenue increases" really have a chance of passing.

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In passing:

• Andrew Rotherham talks about the union getting in the way in California; Liv Finne hits the same note, here.
  
  
• Race to the Top? Maybe not.
  
  
• Intercepts on school district consolidation.

Next week: conversation on the House and Senate education committee meetings, plus the Governor's budget roll-out.

Read more here, if any.

Sen. Zarelli Says We Need a Special Session in December

And I say sure, why not. The schools are going to take it in the shorts one way or the other; might as well get it over with.

Read more here, if any.

Joe Zarelli: Huh?

Something odd that Sen. Zarelli said in the paper the other day:

“We've made our points on this. We're going to let them do what they're going to do,” said Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Zarelli said the looming deficit might not even exist had Democrats taken his advice to adopt the budget well before April so the cuts would have been in place longer. He's hoping they won't wait to act until the end of the 2010 session.

“The inaction is really what we're paying for,” he said. “The problem we're going to have this budget is probably consistent with savings we passed on by not acting in January 2009.”

Does he really believe that passing a budget in January instead of April would have meant an additional $1.8 billion dollars in savings, especially since some of the savings that were projected haven't happened?

Bizarre.

Read more here, if any.

Watch Kelly Linville Bait Joe Zarelli Into Bashing the WEA!

So Austin Jenkins was all, like, "Hey, schools cost money!" and Joltin' Joe was totally like, "Eh, the WEA is teh suxor", which made Kelli get all up in his bidness and try to nail him down on specifics, but then he started talking about health care and I fell asleep because the Basic Health Plan is both boring and will give you cancer, which is the kind of dichotomy that I should find fascinating but meh.

Seriously, though, I've heard this "Make teachers be on the Basic Health Plan" line before, and as a union guy I thank God every time that it comes up because that would be a wonderful gift for anyone trying to do organizing. It's useful, in a "Democrats want to take your guns away!" sort of scheme--it may not be true, but it gets attention.

Edit: Advanced embed, my ass. The good stuff starts at 49:30.

Read more here, if any.