Episode 9 - Advocacy 102: How to Sign in Pro on a Bill

Rainy Day Recess, January 19, 2025

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[00:00:00] Christie Robertson: Welcome to Rainy Day Recess, where we study Seattle Public Schools and the factors that influence it out in the world. We are back with our legislative advocacy series with Megan Larkin. I'm Christie Robertson. We've got Jasmine Pulido. And Jasmine's one-year-old is also here with us.

[00:00:25] Jasmine Pulido: He says hello while eating banana.

[00:00:27] Christie Robertson: We just released our Advocacy 101 episode, but we are back again in your feed due to a recent development that Megan is going to tell us about, and we're going to guide you through something that we are hoping that you guys can all learn how to do.

[00:00:41] Megan Larkin: Yes, so thank you for having me back. And it's very exciting - we've got your first opportunity for easy effective advocacy during the session around the Big Three. 

[00:00:55] Jasmine Pulido: Yeah, and just to key in our newer listeners, in case you haven't listened to Legislative Advocacy 101, you can look back on that, but for those who are newer to the public education space, the Big Three is the most commonly underfunded Aspects of public education, those are transportation special education, and MSOC, which stands for materials, supplies, and operating costs. So if you're for public education, then you would want these funded in some way. 

[00:01:26] Megan Larkin: yeah, absolutely, 

[00:01:27] Jasmine Pulido: if these are properly funded, we can put a huge dent in SPS's deficit. And I really just can't emphasize enough how broadly supported by people who know what they're talking about superintendents, school administrators like everybody. 

And given that we've run out of one time solutions for closing the structural deficit, school closures would come into play, probably, again, if we aren't able to secure funding to close that $100 million gap.

[00:01:56] Megan Larkin: Yes. It's very possible. It's also a big problem statewide. Last I heard, there were six districts in binding conditions, which is the step before receivership. Receivership is like bankruptcy if you're a school district.

And then there's several dozen more who are headed towards binding conditions, including I believe Shoreline and SPS, if we don't get money from the legislature to fulfill Washington's paramount duty of amply funding basic education.

[00:02:30] Christie Robertson: And if you want to learn more about what can happen in binding conditions, you can listen back to the Seattle Hall Pass episode with Stephen Nielsen, where he talks about what that actually means.

[00:02:40] Jasmine Pulido: And that episode's called

[00:02:41] Christie Robertson: It's called, “Can SPS Go Bankrupt”

[00:02:43] Megan Larkin: On Tuesday, January 22nd, there is a hearing before the Senate early learning and K 12 committee for the Big Three bills in the Senate. The leaders of WASA, which is the school administrators, WSSDA, which is the school board directors, and Washington State PTA, which is primarily parents, are going to do a panel before that committee, along with superintendents from five school districts, including Brent Jones from SPS. So you can really see how widespread the support for the Big Three is.

The bills before this committee are 5187. That's a transportation bill. I won't get into too many details here, but it'll be linked in the show notes. It's, I think, important to note that this transportation bill doesn't necessarily do everything that everybody wants, but it's a great starting point. We can work with senators to maybe get some more stuff in there. Maybe plug those funding gaps a little bit more. 

Then we have 5192, which is the MSOC bill from Senator Wellman. It also doesn't necessarily do everything we would like it to do. It's a starting place, though, we can work with our senators to get some more things added in there to do a better job closing the MSOC gap.

We also have 5263, which is a special education bill co-sponsored by Senator Pedersen from the 43rd, who is the majority leader of the Senate, and also by Senator Braun, who is the minority leader of the Senate. So I think it's important to note that these are like leaders from both parties coming together around this.

[00:04:48] Christie Robertson: 5307 does everything that 5263 does. there are some safety net improvements And then the biggest thing for me is that 5307 includes funding for inclusion. 

So personally, what I'm planning to do is I'm going to sign in pro on both of the bills. 

[00:05:02] Megan Larkin: I concur. If you're listening to this like “what?” But yeah, just sign in pro on all of them,

These bills are really something that are super broadly popular. The education community is coming together. People are coming together across partisan lines. This is notable. And now it's going to be important for the public - you, me, all our friends - to show support for these bills before the committee.

And a good way to do that is to sign in pro. Before we talk you through how to do that, I just want to flag something that tends to happen from time to time, even around bills like this, that basically everybody wants. Sometimes you get a group of people. I'm not going to even dignify them with name drops, but it's like the people who want to ban every book in sight, 

[00:06:06] Jasmine Pulido: Can I add in? Maybe? Yeah, I would say these are groups of folks that are actually trying to dismantle the public education system and They are trying to replace that with what they call school choice, which is basically an option into charter schools, private schools, et cetera over public education. Is that correct?

[00:06:29] Megan Larkin: Yes, that is my read on the situation. And unfortunately, they are pretty well organized and pretty good at advocating within the legislature. So something that, in the past, we've seen groups like this do is wait until the 11th hour, so it looks like, the bill is pretty quiet, everybody supports it, nobody really needs to mobilize to get this through, and then they pounce, and get everybody to sign in con at the last minute.

The vast majority of people support the bill, but it looks like it's controversial because of all the people that have signed in con. So what we need to do is show that there really is a lot of support for this out in the public and we can do that by "signing in pro". 

And I'm so excited that Jasmine has agreed to sign in pro in real time on this podcast. Exciting advocacy opportunity.

[00:07:31] Jasmine Pulido: Yeah. And if it's really easy, then I should be able to do it with my one year old in my one hand and then my computer clicking in the other, I'm assuming, I guess I'll demonstrate that for everyone. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:43] Christie Robertson: This will be a great demonstration. We also are going to post a video of this so that you guys can see it on our YouTube channel. So look for that. We'll post a link to that as well, but we'll try to talk through it so that you could follow even just by listening.

[00:07:51] Jasmine Pulido: What's the next thing? Are we walking me through stuff? Can I share my screen?

[00:08:00] Megan Larkin: Oh That'd be perfect. You can find it by just Googling Washington State Legislature.

[00:08:06] Jasmine Pulido: Okay, so Washington State Legislature? Okay. There it is. 

[00:08:15] Christie Robertson: So our transportation bill is 5187. So if you enter that in the bill number field.

[00:08:22] Jasmine Pulido: Five, one, eight, seven. 

[00:08:27] Christie Robertson: Okay. 

Okay. And there's those buttons along the side. You see where it says sign up to testify.

[00:08:37] Megan Larkin: Alright, And there we go! 

[00:08:38] Jasmine Pulido: Okay, let's start with the first one. So I'm in “Testify”. 

[00:08:42] Megan Larkin: Okay, this is perfect. This is where you want to land and where your advocacy org will link you directly to this.

[00:08:52] Christie Robertson: Yes. And in our show description, we will have a link that takes you directly to here. So all the previous steps you can skip.

[00:09:00] Megan Larkin: yep. Okay, so if you're curious you can click on the "see who else has signed in for this" 

[00:09:10] Christie Robertson: that's the green button where it says, see who's signed in. 

[00:09:17] Megan Larkin: So there are all the people who plan to testify.

[00:09:22] Christie Robertson: There's Dr. Brent Jones,

[00:09:24] Megan Larkin: Yep, Dr. Brent Jones, we got Angela Steck, Washington State PTA President. If you go down a little further to not

[00:09:31] Christie Robertson: Concie Pedrosa.

[00:09:34] Megan Larkin: a list of people who have signed in pro,

[00:09:37] Jasmine Pulido: Oh, there you are! Hehe.

[00:09:38] Megan Larkin: So this is, you're adding your name to this list, and you can see that there's not a ton of information that's revealed publicly, but you do go on the legislative record.

[00:09:48] Christie Robertson: So you see the, where it says position and it says pro down there, you can also search for pro or con and you, it will tell you the numbers of each. So before the hearing, based on what Megan's saying, we're going to see like hundreds of people that are signed in con.

[00:10:04] Jasmine Pulido: I see. So what happens is like everyone is lackadaisical about it because they're like, Oh, everyone says pro. So we're fine and then not everyone puts their name in for pro thinking it's like a shoe in and then people sign in last minute and put con.

[00:10:18] Megan Larkin: exactly. And it's difficult to know for sure which bills they're going to do that on, but we're hearing that they probably are going to do it on this bill. So that makes it even more important to sign in pro.

[00:10:34] Jasmine Pulido: Got it. Okay, So if I were to do it, I would say I would like my position noted for the legislative record. Is that correct?

[00:10:41] Megan Larkin: yes. Yep.

[00:10:43] Jasmine Pulido: And just for anyone who is not watching the video on this, it says complete the fields below and press submit to state your position on a bill without testifying. So there's a field that says position. I'm going to put pro. I will put my name, Jasmine.

[00:11:02] Megan Larkin: I think it's important to note that you don't have to put your street address if you don't want to because it is public record. So if you don't want anyone to know where you live, just leave off the street address part and just do your city, state, and zip code.

For organization, you can put parent advocate, or you can put community advocate or identify yourself as a member of a particular organization. Sometimes people sign in on behalf of their organization. So let's say that you're in a PTA or PTO. Your entire PTA can sign in pro on this if you have your membership vote that they want to do that.

[00:11:43] Jasmine Pulido: That's wonderful. I feel like, okay, I'm going to go back to my school and tell the PTA, let's do this. And we can all do it at the same time. We can just get on a zoom and all do it. It's like a community event. But anyway great. 

So I'm going to put my city, which is Seattle, Washington, and my zip. 

Alright, so I'm going to put my phone number in. And then I will click I am not a robot. And then submit registration. 

 So I'm submitting. And then I get a screen that thanks you for your submission. Information is now included. Oh, and we can view the committee hearing on TVW and it has a link. That's cool.

[00:12:23] Megan Larkin: Yeah. Very cool.

[00:12:26] Jasmine Pulido: this says remote testimony registration. I don't have to do any sort of testimony though. It's just saying that.

[00:12:33] Megan Larkin: No. You just stated your position for the legislative record and that's it.

[00:12:37] Christie Robertson: And that's a form of remote testimony. Okay.

[00:12:40] Jasmine Pulido: Okay, great. 

 Okay. So if we go to sign up for more

[00:12:43] Christie Robertson: it's so annoying that it doesn't take you right back to the

[00:12:47] Megan Larkin: Yeah.

[00:12:48] Christie Robertson: Can. I might hit the back button instead to get back to the,

[00:12:51] Jasmine Pulido: Let's do that. 

[00:12:52] Megan Larkin: You can also, once you have the link, like you're on this page, if you just save that link, you can just keep coming back to the sign in

[00:12:59] Jasmine Pulido: Alright, let's save it. Should I do another one?

[00:13:02] Christie Robertson: Yes. Okay. So do you want to do the next

[00:13:05] Jasmine Pulido: Sure. Okay. So I'll go back.

[00:13:07] Christie Robertson: 5192. Mm

[00:13:09] Jasmine Pulido: Five, one, nine, two.

[00:13:11] Christie Robertson: Okay. And there's those buttons along the side. sign up to testify.

[00:13:19] Jasmine Pulido: Alright, so it's already clicked on agenda item 5192.

[00:13:23] Megan Larkin: And there we go. We're 

[00:13:25] Jasmine Pulido: And I can do this green button again, can I see? Because I'm nosy and I want to see who signed in.

[00:13:31] Christie Robertson: Yeah, I always look at that.

[00:13:32] Jasmine Pulido: Oh, Dr. Aramaki is there, who is also a Big Five superintendent.

[00:13:38] Christie Robertson: Oh, 

[00:13:38] Jasmine Pulido: Dr. Pedroza used to be our associate superintendent. Dr. Brent Jones is there. 

And then not testifying, but also pro. It's a few people. Okay, great. So what I'm going to do, I would like to note my position and then my position is pro. I'm going to put my name in, so here is me. Okay. 

And again, literally doing this with my non dominant hand as I hold my one year old. So you can do it too, everybody. Let's see. And then it looks like address is optional. So I will leave it blank. City is Seattle, State: Washington. I will put in my zip code and phone number. And it does say phone number is required. Okay. All right. 

And then it says, by clicking submit registration, you acknowledge you have read and understand the information explaining the purpose of this form and that all of your information is accurate. After submitting, it may not be possible to make changes to registered information. So I'm just double checking my information really quick to make sure I didn’t put Con or something, and then I will submit. Because I am a little distracted at the moment and that could happen so everyone please check before you submit.

And it is all done! 

[00:15:01] Christie Robertson: Okay. You have signed in pro!

[00:15:04] Jasmine Pulido: I did it! Woo! Celebration!

[00:15:07] Megan Larkin: So to recap, you just go to the legislature's main page, you enter the bill number you're interested in signing in pro for, you click testify, but don't worry, you don't have to testify. You just have to fill out those fields that Jasmine just filled out. Super easy, gets easier the more you do it.

[00:15:27] Jasmine Pulido: And if you don't know what the actual bill number is, what is the easiest way to still do it?

[00:15:36] Megan Larkin: Hopefully if you sign up for action alerts from your preferred advocacy organization, they will give you a link that will just go directly to that committee sign in page. I would bet that there's going to be many action alerts coming out today asking people to do just that around these bills. So that's another advantage to finding an advocacy org that you feel reflects your priorities and just signing on and helping their efforts.

[00:16:12] Jasmine Pulido: Sounds great, and because there's about four bills, I'm even going to put in my calendar Do pro on four bills. Just so it doesn't fall off my radar, because there is a small window to do this. Is that correct?

[00:16:25] Megan Larkin: Yes, I believe you could do it up until an hour before the committee, but I would want to double check that.

[00:16:36] Christie Robertson: Yeah, that sounds about right.

[00:16:37] Jasmine Pulido: Sounds great. 

[00:16:37] Christie Robertson: I think that's it. This was a bonus episode. We are going to come back to your feed, hopefully soon, where we'll talk more about the Big Three bills that we're going to follow in this series. 

[00:16:53] Megan Larkin: And really quick, I just remembered one other thing. If you want to get like advocacy bonus points, you can also thank your senators if they either sponsored or co-sponsored this bill. For example, Senator Pedersen is in the 43rd, where a lot of Seattleites also are. He is one of the primary sponsors on one of the special education bills, 5263.

So shoot an email, say thank you. And when you enter the bill number, you can see all of the senators who are signed on as sponsors. I know my senator Jesse Solomon also signed on as a co sponsor. So thank you, kind sir, if you're listening to this. And if you see your senator on there, thank them too.

That's another just easy way to let them know that you're paying attention and you appreciate their efforts.

[00:17:46] Jasmine Pulido: That's wonderful. Thank you so much, Megan. I love being able to take all the information that we have been talking about for the last few months, or actually since the beginning of this podcast, and even on the beginning of Seattle Hall Pass putting all that information into action.

[00:18:07] Megan Larkin: Yeah, I'm happy to do it. I am excited about all the momentum around the Big Three.

[00:18:13] Christie Robertson: Yes. And Peter's very excited too. It's all for Peter. So

[00:18:18] Megan Larkin: yes.

[00:18:18] Jasmine Pulido: That's correct. Yeah, these are all going to be five years down the line when he's going into kindergarten. These are going to be things that are going to impact him for sure.

[00:18:26] Christie Robertson: Okay. That's it for this episode. Thank you so much to Megan Larkin. I'm Christie Robertson. 

[00:18:33] Jasmine Pulido: I'm Jasmine Pulido. Yeah. 

 And Peter's saying hello.

 You can find our show notes at rainydayrecess.org. And if you would like to, you can subscribe to our podcast. You can also donate to us because we are an independently run podcast and so anything that you can contribute to helping our efforts and inform the public are very welcome.

[00:18:58] Christie Robertson: That's right. And you can contact us at hello@rainydayrecess.org. Tell us if you were able to go through this process or if you ran into any hiccups or if there's more that you would like to hear about. 

 Stay curious. Stay cozy. And join us next time for Rainy Day Recess.

[00:19:16] Jasmine Pulido: Thanks.

[00:19:18] Megan Larkin: Yay.