The Washington and Idaho legislatures go back into session next Monday. For most of us in our daily lives, this doesn’t mean much, except that the laws and policies adopted in Olympia and Boise trickle down to us at home.
So this hour, we’ll review a few of the issues that will get attention in the two capitals during the next few months. And we’ll look at what’s on the legislative wish lists of a few folks from Spokane.
One issue in both capitals is school funding. Both states are in the process of making change.
The Washington legislature voted last year to increase state property taxes as part of its plan to raise more money for basic education. That was to satisfy a ruling from the state Supreme Court, which said the state is passing on too many of the costs of teaching school children to local districts.
Two weeks ago on this program, Washington state school superintendent Chris Reykdal explained the reaction to that.
“I think the court said to the legislature, you got it done from the perspective of the court. You used the formulas that we said were basic education, that the legislature wrote in 2009 and 2010. You did make sure that the state money is now going to cover those formulas, instead of locally-funded property taxes. But you’re taking too long," Reykdal said. "The court was really clear to say, we had an expectation this would be done in 2018. Your full plan doesn’t really kick in until 2019. So we need you to speed that up as much as you can. The court didn’t ask for another billion dollars of new money. They said you’ve really got to pull something forward here to satisfy our timeline.”
So, Washington’s legislature will be searching for another billion dollars to spend for schools in 2018.
Idaho’s legislature has also been putting more money to education during the last few years, much of it to steadily improve teacher salaries. Now lawmakers will be asked to consider a more fundamental change in the way money is allocated to school districts.
A legislative committee, co-chaired by Idaho Falls Republican Representative Wendy Horman, has been working for two years to evaluate the state’s current funding system and to replace it something that’s simpler and easy to explain. She joins us now.
