April 17, 2009

Notice
The United Ways of Washington’s 2009 legislative updates are now available on-line at http://www.unitedway-wa.org/leg_updates.html.

Contents
+ Quick Overview for Week
+ Early Learning Take-Aways for Week
+ Budget News
+ Bill Action
+ Subscription Information

Quick Overview for Week

• Floor debate in the House and Senate dominated the schedule this week in Olympia. Legislators have been working hard to get their bills voted out of their respective chambers by the 5:00pm deadline this evening. If bills currently sitting in the Rules Committee do not get voted off the House or Senate floor by 5:00pm this evening, they will be considered “dead.”
• Both the House and Senate budget proposals (HB 1244 and SB 5600) have been voted out of their respective fiscal committees. They currently await full chamber debate. Notably, there are still significant differences between the early learning portions of the two budget proposals.
• Revenue option discussions intensified as Rep. Pettigrew introduced legislation to place a referendum on the November ballot to temporarily increase the state sales tax to support health care programs and fund the Working Families Rebate.

Early Learning Take-Aways for Week

• On Thursday, April 16th, the Senate passed HB 2261, the education reform bill, with positive language around early learning that mirrored the House version. This is a very significant action. Now the push will be for the House to accept this version of the bill in what is called “concurrence.” The House can simply approve the bill in its current entire form or reject it entirely. There is no option for edits. Thus, “yes” from the House in concurrence is the final step before this bill will be signed by the Governor. It is timely to contact your legislators if you want to express support for final acceptance of this bill.
• Major changes were made to HB 1329, which concerns collective bargaining for child care center directors and workers, on the Senate floor on Monday evening. The amendments to the bill moved focus from establishing collective bargaining to studying options to increase subsidy and reimbursement rates, including collective bargaining.  See further details below.
• The Senate’s budget proposal now includes $1.7 million in federal funds to fund the Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral’s core services.  As we previously reported, funding for the Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral core services was the only early learning budget item on the Early Learning Action Alliance’s agenda that was not initially reflected in any of the original budget proposals from the Governor, House, and Senate.
• A proposal to delay implementation of the Family Leave Insurance Program was introduced Monday as a means to preserve the program without costing the state immediate expense to administer it. See more discussion on this item below.

Budget News
As noted above, the House and Senate budget proposals have been voted out of their respective fiscal committees. The budget proposals are now in their respective chamber’s Rules Committee and are awaiting full chamber debate.
There are still differences in the early learning portions of the two budget proposals. For instance, the Senate Ways & Committee amended the Senate budget to include an appropriation of federal stimulus funding for the Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral Network (CCR&R). This amendment differs slightly from the House’s action to appropriate funds targeted to infant and toddler care through training, technical assistance, and consultation.  Thus, this during the conference committee process a compromise will need to be achieved to mend the difference between the House’s intent to target supports for infant and toddler care and the Senate’s intent to boost CCR&R core services specifically.
House and Senate leadership continue to meet to negotiate budget differences and reach compromise. Ultimately, the budget will be approved by both the House and Senate and signed by the Governor. It will either be the House or Senate budget proposal, with amendments that attend to the compromises leaders are still aiming to reach, that will become the final budget.
Session is scheduled to close on April 26th. That means the legislature and Governor needs to approve a final budget in order to adjourn on time. Otherwise, they will move into what is called “special session” to allow more time to reach consensus on a final budget.
Revenue Options
On April 18, Rep. Eric Pettigrew introduced HB 2377 which would place a referendum on the November ballot to temporarily raise the state sales tax by 3/10 of 1 percent.  Approximately 75 percent of the revenue would support health care initiatives, including the Basic Health Care Plan, long-term care, hospitals and public health.  The remainder would fund the Working Families Rebate that was enacted, but not funded, in 2008.  The Working Families Rebate is modeled after the federal Earned Income Tax and is designed to provide tax relief for working families with children.
HB 2377 received a public hearing on April 18.
Bill Action
Education Reform
On Thursday, April 16th, the Senate debated and took executive action on HB 2261 which concerns basic education. The Senate had healthy debate on education reform and ultimately passed the bill with early learning language that mirrors the House language. In summary, the current version of the bill now includes voluntary full-day kindergarten in the definition of basic education and expresses intent for including preschool for at-risk three and four year olds. Now the House must accept these changes the Senate made in what is called “concurrence” in order for the bill to become law. Concurrence action is anticipated this weekend.
This action comes on the heels of an advocacy push including a press conference held in Olympia on Wednesday, April 15th, where legislators and education leaders urged the Senate to pass HB 2261 with – at a minimum – the same language that was included when the bill cleared the House.
Notably, Mary Jean Ryan the Chair of the State Board of Education stated that education reform as outlined in the House language of HB 2261 would be historic but not radical. It would be historical since the same definition has been in use since 1979, thus we are working with an outdated definition that does not reflect the current needs of our children. Yet it would not be radical since the House language in HB 2261 proposes including voluntary full-day kindergarten and quality preschool for at-risk youth and we know multiple studies substantiate increased positive outcomes for children. Research shows us that when kids start school with the skills they need to succeed they are more likely to graduate high school and become productive workers in a competitive global market. Sadly, national and Washington-specific research shows that less than half of our children are starting school with the developmental skills necessary to succeed.
Additionally, Cheryl Jones the Executive Director of Allen Renaissance and member of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable shared real and unfortunate examples from her community about youth getting involved in the juvenile justice system because they did not have access to the early learning programs that the House language for HB 2261 includes and we know work – voluntary full-day kindergarten and preschool for at-risk three and four year olds. She said “we pay today or tomorrow” which is consistent with what research tells us. Investments in early learning for very young, at-risk children have especially strong return on investment. Nobel Laureate economist James Heckman says return on investment includes higher graduation rates, better job skills, increased home ownership, and less chance of criminal activities.
While education leaders at the press conference acknowledged the Washington Education Association’s (WEA) opposition to this bill due to their valid focus on the short-term budget impacts, they emphasized there is also an urgency to keep focus on the long-term objectives which encompass including early learning in the definition of basic education. No doubt, funding a system, K12 or otherwise, is expensive Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn admitted. And as we have reported in the past, there is still a strong philosophical debate in Olympia around what programs of basic education should be funded and at what funding level. Yet we know that some 85% of the core structure of the brain develops in the first five years, whereas only 4% of public investments in children happen then (RAND Corporation). Including preschool for at-risk youth in the definition of basic education would protect that early learning funding despite difficult budget times.
Ryan and Jones both urged the Senate to include early learning in the definition of basic education before federal stimulus money streams down. Ryan noted that President Obama has set forth ambitious education funding that sets the stage for reform. Jones advocated for putting a new definition in place that includes early learning for at-risk youth so we can ensure the dollars go to the students most in need. She expressed sentiment that education is the pathway to success for many youth who are facing adversity due to poverty and/or being raised in a single-parent household perhaps due to one parent being incarcerated.
 
Family Leave Insurance
On Monday, April 13th SB 6158, which proposes a three-year delay in implementing the paid Family Leave Insurance Program, was introduced. The bill’s prime sponsor is Sen. Keiser with Sens. Brown, Prentice, and Tom signed on as co-sponsors. The sponsorship roster for this bill – notably strong democratic leaders in the areas of finance and/or commerce – demonstrates the difficult decisions policymakers must continue to make in order to balance the budget.
Senate bill 6158 protects the program, but stalls implementation until October 1, 2012 which saves the state $18 million in initial program administration fees now and presumably allows enough time for the economy to rebound. This is an alternative to eliminating the program entirely which HB 1160 sponsored by Rep. Cary Condotta proposed. House bill 1160 was introduced at the start of this session but did not move anywhere, signaling lack of support.
Senate Bill 6158 is considered a necessary to implement the budget bill, for “NTIB” bill, and is thus exempt from the legislative session cutoffs. The bill is currently awaiting a public hearing and vote in the Senate Ways and Means committee.
As we reported last year, the Family Leave Insurance Program was established in 2007 by SB 5659. The program gives families a $250 per week stipend to care for a newborn or adopted child and provides for some job protection following leave.  It is modeled after California's program, the only other state with such a benefit program.
 After the 2007 legislative session came to a close, a bipartisan joint legislative task force convened over the legislative interim to discuss options for financing and administration of the program. For the task force's final report, visit http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/joint/fli/FinalReport.pdf.
Attempts to implement the task force’s recommendations in 2008 (through SB 6280) failed. Legislators were gridlocked over how to pay for the program. Where some favored an employee-paid tax others disagreed with lower-income workers subsidizing higher-income workers paid leave. Also, the idea of an employer-paid tax generated opposition from those concerned about keeping the cost of business affordable. As a result, at the close of the 2008 legislative session no permanent funding source for the program was designated, yet the program was scheduled to go live on October 1, 2009. Senate bill 6158 will delay the program implementation and push out the necessary resolution to securing a permanent funding source, and is designed to protect the program in this dire budget climate.
Collective Bargaining
On Monday, April 13th, the Senate approved amendments that drastically changed HB 1329, which concerns collective bargaining for child care center directors and workers.  The bill ultimately passed the Senate on a 46-2 vote after adopting two amendments that took different approaches – approaches that reflect the philosophical debate that has occurred throughout this legislative session on the best strategy to increase reimbursement rates

The first amendment, sponsored by Sen. Phil Rockefeller, was an attempt to address some of the concerns from child care providers who did not wish to become part of a union.  This amendment provided an opt-in provision, limited the scope of bargaining, specified negotiations would not begin before July 1, 2011 and included a June 30, 2014 sunset date.  These amendments were viewed as a compromise by the prime sponsor, Senator Chris Marr, with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown speaking in favor of their adoption saying it would benefit low-income children in particular.  Senator Jim Kastama was one who spoke in opposition to this approach, noting it would remove legislative authority.

Later in the debate, amendments put forward by Senator Brian Hatfield were adopted that struck provisions relating to collective bargaining and called for the Department of Early Learning to study issues related to subsidy and reimbursement rate increases by August 1, 2010.  The amendments direct that the study review of the impact of providing collective bargaining for family child care providers.  They create a task force charged with developing legislative proposals from the study results.  Senator Marr urged Senators to oppose this amendment, saying it represents a “step backwards.”  Proponents ultimately prevailed, with a bi-partisan group providing sufficient votes for its adoption. 

With these significant changes, the different approaches taken in the Senate and House will be resolved through a conference committee.

Subscription Info
This weekly legislative update is brought to you by the United Ways of Washington in partnership with the Washington State Child Care Resource and Referral Network. Please forward this legislative update to your early learning network. To subscribe, contact Erica Hallock at erica.hallock@unitedway.org.