1. A lot has been going on in Olympia. The state Legislature appears to have organized itself and committee assignments have been made. Because there are so many newly elected Legislators and so many moving from the house to the senate, the committee make up is quite different this session. For the first weeks, committees are going into learning mode – getting up to speed on basic background, recent reports on various studies they have authorized, etc. and very little actual legislating.
If you are interested in which Legislators sit on which committees, go to http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rosters/CommitteeMembersByCommittee.aspx and search by committee or to http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rosters/CommitteeMembersByMember.aspx and search by name.
2. You might find state web sites in a state of flux as all the changes are made over the coming days so be patient. www.governor.wa.gov now shows Jay Inslee. The “Find my Legislator” page now shows the current (new) districts.
3. A report of great interest to gifted advocates has been submitted to the Legislature and is wending its way through hearings. Further action (including filing of specific bills to implement the recommendations) is not yet known. The Quality Education Council presented its Report to the Legislature on January 15th. The QEC is the body designated by the Legislature to organize the implementation of educational reform based on bills passed in recent sessions. This report is available at http://www.k12.wa.us/LegisGov/2013documents/QEC2013Report.pdf
The three state-wide gifted organizations have written to all legislators strongly supporting the QEC recommendations on the Highly Capable Program – pasted into the next paragraph – on page 14. We urge you to make this support the basis of your contacts with your Legislators in the coming months. We want to retain our status as a part of basic education and, if possible in this session, obtain a new funding formula. Input from advocates such as you can take us a long way toward achieving these goals.
Priority Area 3: Close the Opportunity Gap for Disadvantaged Students and Students of Color
5. The Legislature should support the strengthening of the Highly Capable Program to ensure that all students have equal access to it, consistent with the recommendations of the Highly Capable Program Technical Working Group**:
a. The Legislature should adopt a new and uniform definition of Highly Capable Program students, as provided in the Technical Working Group report to the Legislature; and
b. The Legislature should direct OSPI to create a common and consistent identification process for Highly Capable Program students.
c. The Legislature should direct OSPI to create rules that allow flexibility for small school districts to implement highly capable programs until the full funding recommendations* of the QEC can be adopted by the Legislature.
*“Full funding recommendations of the QEC” can be found on page 15 of the August 13, 2012 meeting materials, Past QEC recommendations http://www.k12.wa.us/QEC/PastMeetings/default.aspx
**The Highly Capable Workgroup report can be found online at: http://www.k12.wa.us/HighlyCapable/Workgroup/default.aspx in the right sidebar.
4. I hope that lots and lots of you are making plans to be in Olympia on Gifted Education Day, March 19, 2013. We’ll be in the Columbia Room of the Legislative Building beginning at about 8:30. Program is scheduled for 9:00 to 10:30 and then you are free to attend to the most important business of the day, talking with your legislators and educating them on the unique educational needs of highly capable students and why such programs benefit not only the individual student but society as a whole.
We’ll be providing you with a lot of material you can use in formulating your message – it is just a bit late in getting sent out due to some unexpected (aren’t they always unexpected) health problems of your correspondent and her husband taking up a lot of time just now and the big project contacting every individual legislator (147) with the statement of support of the QEC recommendations. 147 personalized emails takes a lot of time and effort!
5. This week the Coalition formally became a member of the Network For Excellence in Washington Schools (NEWS) the lead appellant in the McCleary case. The decision in that case calls for ample (full) funding of basic education and since HCP is a part of basic education (and is not amply funded) it seemed a good match for us to be part of the appellant group.
P.S. We’re up to 645 supporters on Facebook. We need to reach 750 before GEDay so if you are a user of Facebook, please “like” us now!