Rainy Day Recess

Big 3 Briefing, Week 4

Various Season 1 Episode 13

It’s week 4 of the 2025 legislative session in Washington State. Megan Larkin is helping us follow the education bills related to the Big 3 priorities embraced by major education advocacy organizations across Washington. 

See our Show Notes

TRANSPORTATION BILLS:

MSOC (Materials, Supplies, Operating Costs) BILLS:

SPECIAL EDUCATION BILLS:

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Rainy Day Recess music by Lester Mayo, logo by Cheryl Jenrow.

Big 3 Briefing, Week 4

Rainy Day Recess, Season 1 Episode 13

See our Show Notes

[00:00:00] Christie Robertson: Welcome to Rainy Day Recess, where we study Seattle Public Schools and the forces that influence the district out in the world. Today I have Megan Larkin with me for the Big 3 Briefing. 

Megan, can you introduce yourself and remind our listeners what the Big 3 are and what we are doing here in this series?

[00:00:23] Megan Larkin: Yes! Hello, I’m Megan Larkin. I am a parent of two SPS kids. I have a masters in Education Policy and Leadership Studies, and I used to work in that field. And I'm currently the Regional Advocacy Co-chair working on Seattle for the Washington state PTA. All of these things inform my perspective, though I am speaking now only as myself as a Big 3 fan. 

The education advocacy community has all lined up around the Big 3. The Big 3 is: 1) special education, 2) pupil transportation, and 3) materials, supplies, and operating costs, otherwise known as MSOC.

[00:01:08] Christie Robertson: So let's ground ourselves here. Our school districts around the whole state of Washington are in a financial... I don't know if “crisis” is too strong a word. 

[00:01:20] Megan Larkin: I don't think so. 

[00:01:21] Christie Robertson: ...with a lot of them having a giant budget deficit, largely because they are underfunded by the state. And we will link again to this awesome online tool... 

[00:01:31] Megan Larkin: ...that the AESD (Association of Educational Service Districts) put together...

[00:01:34] Christie Robertson: ...that you can look at to see why the focus is on these three areas. There's a huge discrepancy between the amount that the state funds in each of these areas and the amount that districts spend – nearly every district for every one of these areas. And you can look at your district and see the differences. 

[00:01:53] Megan Larkin: SPS, as an example, in transportation, over the past three years, it's been underfunded by about $66.3 million. That's about $1,361 per pupil. For special education, over the past three years, SPS has been underfunded by a staggering about $291 million. And for MSOC, over the past three years, SPS has been underfunded by about $21.7 million. That is crazy. And when you think about SPS's hundred million dollar budget deficit, if we're able to get funding for the Big 3, that could go a long way to taking care of that.

 And another thing we can mention, I think, is if you look at the larger political environment right now, it's... chaotic is a charitable way to describe what's happening at the federal level. There's a lot of uncertainty. It's stressful, to say the least. Then we have a budget deficit of between $10 and $12 billion for the biennium at the state level. And it's easy to get lost. It's almost like a "flood the zone" kind of situation. 

 So another part of this work, I think, is keeping your eye on the ball. Because it's easy to get discouraged or it's easy to be like, "Oh God did you see what the president said he would do? Oh no." And that's, I think, part of the tactic, right? It's to get people to take their eye off the ball. And so people aren't signing in pro, and these bills aren't moving forward. But we can't do that. We have to keep our priorities straight and walk and chew gum at the same time.

[00:04:00] Christie Robertson: So that's why we're here. The state is the biggest source of funding for school districts. And this is our few months that we have to influence the funding that districts get for next school year.

[00:04:13] Megan Larkin: Yes. And you really can influence it. As I look at the sign in pro and con numbers for bills before hearings, and the numbers are such that, Yeah, like even if you just ask your PTA to sign in pro, like that could really make a huge impact.

[00:04:33] Christie Robertson: Oh, and if you also have a chance to contact your legislator, if they are in an influential position, we'll mention some of those in this episode. Legislators, surprisingly, do not hear that much from families and don't hear that much about schools. Various legislators have told me that. So if you and your friends send some messages, it could actually really be an influence.

[00:04:55] Megan Larkin: Yeah, you can really have an influence and even if you're like, "Oh, wow, maybe I shouldn't do this because I'm not like a policy wonk." Don't worry about it. You don't have to be a policy wonk. You can either find an education advocacy group and use their email templates, or even if you just email and say, “I care about this, fund this, I'm watching,” that also has an impact.

[00:05:19] Christie Robertson: “My district was considering and may still close a great number of schools, and my high schooler's librarian might get cut to half time, which means that they wouldn't have access to X, Y, and Z.” Those kinds of messages are exactly what make the difference.

[00:05:36] Megan Larkin: And legislators can use your personal story as part of their advocacy to be like, "the people in my district are not going to be able to have librarians if we don't pass this bill." Or, "If my district was able to use its enrichment levy funds for enrichment, look at all this wonderful stuff that we could have." That kind of story is very motivating. Because a lot of what happens during session is just conversations between legislators, like people trying to convince other people to move their bill forward and not one of the other 1,200 bills that are out there.

[00:06:15] Christie Robertson: So stick with us as we dive into the specific bills and help you learn how to follow the legislative process. 

 This is the fourth in our Big 3 Briefing series, the first of which was 101 – an introduction to the legislative process. You can find the rest of the episodes on our website, rainydayrecess.org

So I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna take each of the areas. And talk about what's happening in this fourth week in the House and in the Senate. And do we want to start with transportation?

Transportation Senate

[00:06:54] Megan Larkin: We certainly can. So last week in the Senate, there was that Big 3 hearing where we asked everybody to sign in pro. Thank you again for doing that. 

The senate transportation bill was introduced by Senator Wellman, who's the chair of the education committee, and it got executive action on January 30th. And the bill was passed out of committee with no changes. It's kind of a bummer because the bill basically asks OSPI to come up with a formula. 

[00:07:15] Christie Robertson: And OSPI is the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which is our top level state education authority.

[00:07:43] Megan Larkin: Yes! 

The Senate Big 3 Transportation Bill 

[00:07:47] Christie Robertson: (SB 5187)

[00:07:50] Megan Larkin: requires OSPI to perform an analysis of school district transportation costs and allocations following the 26-27 school year. And the analysis is due to the legislature by June 1st, 2028. And that is a long time. We need funding help way before that.

[00:08:13] Christie Robertson: Why can't they analyze the 24-25 or the 25-26 school year?

[00:08:18] Megan Larkin: I do not know. Adding to the mystery of this is that during the Big 3 hearing last week, OSPI staff testified in favor of this transportation bill, and they said they already had some ideas and were ready to go. 

[00:08:34] Christie Robertson: Here's Tyler Munch from OSPI at that hearing.

[00:08:38] Tyler Munsch: Our agency could move faster? Well, I would say we, we had a plan and uh, I don't think the legislature was prepared to fund it, I think was the issue. Yeah. We're ready to go. 

[00:08:49] Megan Larkin: So it felt like that date could be moved up from 2028, but now I'm hearing that it appears this was some wishful thinking, and there will likely not even be an effort to short circuit this timeline.

[00:09:06] Christie Robertson: So there's one short term piece of this, which is a $400 per student additional funding for McKinney Vento students, which are homeless students. And there was also a request to add foster care students and special education transportation, and that was not added. The bill is unchanged.

[00:09:28] Megan Larkin: Yes, that's correct. 

The bill was reported out of committee with no dissenting votes. So it's going to move on to Ways and Means, the fiscal committee. So they're going to look at the fiscal impacts of all of this. 

It's also, I think, important to note that sometimes additional funding for things like special passengers can be done in the operating budget, like down the road. Which is not ideal, because then It's more discretionary, but that's another way we could get the funding in there.

Transportation House

[00:10:00] Christie Robertson: Yeah. And is there a transportation bill in the House?

[00:10:01] Megan Larkin: Yes. So the Senate transportation bill has a companion bill. And a companion bill is basically exactly the same language as its companion. The House companion bill was introduced by Representative Nance. It was just introduced pretty recently. And it's HB 1579. It has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee, but it has not yet had a hearing.

This is an example of an area where it's possible to do targeted advocacy, because what we would like to see is, we want to get a hearing. We want to testify about the stuff we would like to have added in the bill. We want to try to move that forward. But in order to do that, it has to be scheduled for a hearing in Appropriations.

If you live in the 43rd district, one of your representatives, Nicole Macri, is vice chair of Appropriations. If you feel so moved, you could email her and ask her to schedule the House transportation bill for a hearing. I created a template for an email asking Representative Macri to do this. It's linked in the show notes.You're welcome to use it, or not – live your best life. But targeted advocacy to get this transportation bill in the House moved forward, in my opinion, is necessary.

[00:11:38] Christie Robertson: And the 43rd district is in the south part of northeast Seattle and the north part of southeast Seattle, I think.

[00:11:45] Megan Larkin: Yes.

[00:11:46] Christie Robertson: Kind of central. And you can also Google District Finder where you can just put in your address and find out if you are in the 43rd. 

 Okay, so let's talk about MSOC. 

MSOC Senate

[00:11:55] Megan Larkin: Okay, MSOC. 

[00:11:58] Christie Robertson: MSOC – Materials, Supplies, and Operating Costs. One way to think of it is “keeping the lights on” money.

[00:12:07] Megan Larkin: Yes, it's “keeping the lights on” money. It's like just the basic stuff you need to have a school. So in the Senate, that bill is SB 5192. It was introduced by Senator Nobles, who's the vice chair of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee. It had its public hearing last week and then it had executive action. That's where the committee looks at the bill and sees what they want to add or subtract, if anything, and then recommends if they think the bill should pass. 

The Senate MSOC bill, the headline is it would increase MSOC by about 10%. Which is better than nothing, but it's definitely not ideal. So it's like a starting point for the MSOC conversations. 

[00:12:52] Christie Robertson: Right, because most districts are spending what, like 30% more on MSOC than they're granted? 

[00:12:59] Megan Larkin: I don't know the exact figure, but it's something like that. That's why that tool that the AESD put together is so cool. Like you can see all the gaps on MSOC, and 10% is definitely not sufficient to cover them all for almost all districts. 

Additionally, the Senate MSOC bill increases annually by inflation.

It also calculates the amount you get for MSOC based on student enrollment for the average of the prior three school years. So it smooths funding out in that way. This bill passed out of the committee and was referred to Ways and Means. 

MSOC House

[00:13:43] Megan Larkin: In the House, though, we are super excited about that MSOC bill. Representative April Berg worked with the Big 3 Coalition to write the bill. It's got a lot of the stuff that we love in there. The headline for the House MSOC bill, HB 1338, is it would increase MSOC by 20%. 

 The House MSOC bill has a hearing before House Appropriations at 4 p.m. on Monday, February 3rd. So by the time this episode comes out, this has probably already happened. 

A process note is that before a bill has a hearing, you have an opportunity to register what you think of the bill on the legislative record or give written or verbal testimony. This is what “signing in pro” means. We had an episode, 

[00:14:40] Christie Robertson: a couple of weeks ago,

[00:14:42] Megan Larkin: where we talked about “signing in pro”. So the MSOC bill in the House is another example of why signing in pro and getting your networks to sign in pro really matters. There is a group called the Conservative Ladies of Washington who are targeting MSOC in particular, and they're really good at moving numbers. So as of 10 AM on Monday, February the 3rd, there were 1,928 pros and 1,181 cons. 

[00:15:17] Christie Robertson: Which I think also means that we are good at getting out numbers, because I recall when I first heard about this, the cons were ahead, so now there are more pros. So keep signing in.

[00:15:22] Megan Larkin: Yes. you're going to have a lot more opportunities to sign in pro this session. Particularly, I think it's going to be around MSOC for whatever reason. 

[00:15:27] Christie Robertson: Which is funny, because it's so clearly just a result of inflation that those prices are going up.

[00:15:44] Megan Larkin: Yeah. And it's just really basic, non-controversial things, in my opinion. It's things like utilities and insurance, and you can't cut back on those.

[00:15:54] Christie Robertson: It's not even like teacher raises or indoctrinating our kids or any of those things.

[00:16:01] Megan Larkin: Nope. It's all pretty straightforward. But for whatever reason, the Conservative Ladies of Washington do not like MSOC. 

I should probably mention that the issue isn't that they're like conservative or ladies or of Washington, though I think their leadership is actually of Florida. It's not a partisan thing. It's that they're trying to tank funding for education. Something to note, while we're talking about the House MSOC bill's hearing in Appropriations this Monday the 3rd at 4 pm – in the very same hearing is Governor Ferguson's pet bill, which is HB 1404 in the House. It's Universal Meals, so free school meals, for the most part. And I think this is an example of where we need to stay on message because free meals are great. It sounds like a great bill. But we need to fund the Big 3 first, because if we don't have basic education or enough money to run a school building, then districts are still going to go into binding conditions or receivership.

[00:17:20] Christie Robertson: And the money for the free meals will just come out of those other buckets. What we need is both/and.

[00:17:27] Megan Larkin: Yes, we need both, and we can't fall for messaging that's, "Look, we added $240 million to education," but that $240 million is for the universal meals. Which is great, but we need to fully fund MSOC so we can have schools. We need to fully fund special education so we can meet our constitutional requirements. We need to have pupil transportation so we can get kids to school. 

We don't want that $240 million to come out of these other buckets because there's no fat to trim. There's nothing to take out of the buckets.

 So that's MSOC.

Special Education Senate

[00:18:10] Christie Robertson: Let's talk about special education funding.

[00:18:14] Megan Larkin: All right.

[00:18:14] Christie Robertson: This is probably the most complicated area.

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

[00:18:20] Christie Robertson: Special education is a very complicated beast and has a lot of different aspects to its funding.

[00:18:26] Megan Larkin: It does. 

[00:18:27] Christie Robertson: But it's nice that there's been a lot of work sessions in the legislature as well. So the legislators are really getting learned up on how special education funding works. It's very good for them to be informed about that.

[00:18:40] Megan Larkin: That's, yeah, that's great. 

[00:18:42] Christie Robertson: The main way that special education is funded is by what's called a “multiplier”. This means that there's a certain apportionment for every student in the district, and whatever number that is, they call that 1x. And then on top of that, if a kid gets an IEP (an Individual Education Plan), meaning they are getting special education services, then the district gets on top of that, the multiplier. Which started off at some minuscule amount and now is between 1.06x and 1.12x, depending on how much of the day that student spends in the general education classroom. That’s on top of the 1x that's for their general education. 

And that is not enough, very clearly, from what schools are spending. So a lot of the conversation that we really care about in terms of funding is what is that multiplier going to go up to.

[00:19:39] Megan Larkin: Yes. And in the original Senate bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and Senate Minority Leader Braun, the multiplier was a really great 1.5289x. But when there was executive action on the bill, that multiplier got dialed down to 1.32x. Which is definitely better than it is now, but yeah, it's still a bummer.

That's a great example of the kind of thing that happens in executive action and why it's so important to move a bill through a committee so it can get to executive action, because there's opportunities for changes in the process still. 

And a big thing is just getting your bill heard at all. There's 1,200 bills this session. A lot of them are not even going to get hearings. So things like the transportation bill, we just want to, we want to get to a hearing and then we can hope that we can fix it in executive action or on the floor. 

In addition to SB 5263, the Pedersen/Braun special education bill, there was another special education bill introduced by Senator Wellman that did a lot of the same stuff but then also had different things in it that OSPI requested. And, we don't expect SB 5307, the Wellman special education bill, to advance, but we're seeing a lot of the stuff that was in there put in the Pedersen/Braun special education bill during the executive action period. 

[00:21:44] Christie Robertson: Yep. Some of the great things that are coming in from SB 5307 into the bill that's moving forward, SB 5263, are quarterly payments for safety net, which helps districts a lot with their budgets. There's professional development for OSPI for inclusion and to target if there's over identification of certain groups of kids for special education.

There's also a really key one that I have been hearing about a lot is to develop a statewide system of IEPs (Individual Education Plans). Right now it's very difficult to track things like: 

  • Are districts in general meeting their special education obligations?
  • What kinds of services are students generally getting? 
  • How many minutes of which kinds of services are students getting? 

Because those forms are not uniform. They're different by each district. It's really important to develop and maintain a statewide online system for those. I think that will help a lot in making improvements to the system, and that piece was one of the ones that was rolled into the bill that's going forward, which is great. 

[00:22:31] Megan Larkin: Yay! Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. 

I think it's also important to mention that there's language in the bill about, “okay, we're going to make sure the districts don't over-identify students for special education.” But there's no credible evidence that over-identification is actually a problem. Especially because districts right now are really disincentivized from over-identifying, just because special education is so underfunded.

[00:22:59] Christie Robertson: Well, there's kind of two issues that are getting conflated. There's the over-identification in general, and then there's the over-identification by student groups. In Seattle, I looked into the numbers a couple of years ago, and black students were three times more likely to be put into the segregated special education programs than white students. There wasn't an over identification for special education in general, but for the more intensive programs where the students are taken out of the classroom, there was. And on the other side of that, black students are LESS likely to be identified for learning disabilities – for the kinds of services that would get pushed into the classrooms. Obviously that's a huge problem. And does a great disservice to those kids. And that is not uncommon. I'm hoping that's the kind of overidentification that OSPI is going to want to look into

 

[00:23:52] Megan Larkin: That's good. 

[00:23:54] Christie Robertson: Yeah.

[00:23:55] Megan Larkin: The Senate Special Education Bill was adopted by the committee with no dissenting votes and, along with the Senate transportation and MSOC bill, it moves on to Senate Ways and Means. So it'll be interesting to see what happens there. And I suspect that'll be another opportunity for us to sign in pro.

[00:24:16] Christie Robertson: Yes. So one thing that I didn't realize when I first started doing this, you sign in to a bill whenever it goes to each committee. So if you signed in pro on the transportation bill while it was in the education committee, you sign in again when it's in the fiscal committee. That's right, right? 

[00:24:38] Megan Larkin: Yes. 

[00:24:39] Christie Robertson: Yeah. If you're tracking the bill along and you're following along with our episodes here, we're going to ask you to sign in to the same bills multiple times (if you want to sign in).

[00:24:49] Megan Larkin: And you can think of it, for example, with the Senate special education bill, it's different than it was. The committee did stuff to it, mainly good stuff. So it's a different version of itself. It's a substitute bill. So you have to indicate your support for this new animal in addition to your support for its previous version.

[00:25:11] Christie Robertson: Right, that's a good point. And to a different committee.

[00:25:14] Megan Larkin: Yes, to a different committee, Senate Ways and Means.

Special Education House

[00:25:18] Christie Robertson: And I guess the last chunk is special education in the House.

[00:25:22] Megan Larkin: Yes. So there is a difference for the House. There's three special education bills. One is HB 1310, which is the companion bill to SB 5307 (that was a bill that was introduced by Lisa Wellman and was requested by OSPI). We don't expect the Senate version to move out of committee, because it got folded into the other special education bill that had Pedersen and Braun behind it. But the House version is still alive and kicking. It was introduced by longtime education ally, Gerry Pollet.

[00:26:04] Christie Robertson: And it has all the good stuff in it.

[00:26:06] Megan Larkin: All the good stuff from SB 5307. There are also two other bills.

[00:26:09] Christie Robertson: Basically all of the bills either gradually or immediately remove the special education funding cap. 

[00:26:17] Megan Larkin: So, when we're talking about an enrollment cap for special education... The state right now says, "We will give you extra funds for special education, but only up to a certain point. Once you exceed the certain percentage of kids getting special education there's no more money for any number of kids over that cap.” This obviously is bad for funding, right? Because these kids still need these services, and they're not getting the additional money.

[00:26:49] Christie Robertson: And the districts are legally responsible for funding those services. They don't get to opt out.

[00:26:57] Megan Larkin: Yes, exactly. It's basic education. It's that guaranteed constitutional right. But if there's an enrollment cap, that means that the state isn't meeting its obligation. 

[00:27:08] Christie Robertson: So this has been a real shift since I started watching the legislature. It used to be a really controversial idea to talk about not having a percentage cap. Cultural progress. 

[00:27:19] Megan Larkin: Yes, a big change to the politics of that one is Senator Lisa Wellman, the chair of the Senate Early Learning K-12 committee. She used to be very against lifting the cap, but now she's changed her mind. That is a great example of how advocacy can have a big impact, like you can sway key legislators. 

As of this recording, none of the House bills have been scheduled for executive actions. So we're going to be watching those closely because we want them to move forward. I would say we're particularly excited about 1310.

[00:27:41] Christie Robertson: Here's some of the great testimony from the House Appropriations Committee about House Bill 1310 concerning special education funding.

[00:28:07] Julianna Dauble: Juliana Dauble, president of Renton Education Association. This bill is about basic morality, and I think you all are aware of that. Every week I get a phone call from a teacher or a counselor, asking, “How do I get out of my contract?” And the crisis that they are faced with is absolutely due to special education funding. We want to do inclusive practices well, and we are overwhelmed with the underfunding of basic education.

[00:28:29] Jen Chong Jewell: My name is Jen Chong Jewell, and this is my son, 

[00:28:31] Gabriel: Gabriel. 

[00:28:32] Jen Chong Jewell: Gabriel. Number one, my community and my state has a paramount duty to provide a free and a public education for all students. My son requires special education services to access his basic education. There is nothing special about that. He, like any other student with a disability, has the right to their basic education.

Number two, funding for professional development. is critical. I have utilized every resource I could through the Inclusionary Practices Project to bring resources and accountability to my son's school's team and to the district. This has resulted in my son being able to access general education just over 80 percent of the day. And As a result, he gets math, science, reading, all the things, just like any other student.

And moreover, what I noticed over time, that it brings members of the IEP team closer together, they collaborate more, and at his last IEP meeting, each and every member of the team had something meaningful to say about my son, and they all have a relationship with him. 

[00:29:45] Concie Pedroza:  Dr. Concie Pedroza, proud superintendent of Tukwila school district. We are in support of the increased multiplier, reducing the safety net, and my district was accepted in the inclusionary projects. And we were accepted for two years, but that has paused due to funding.

[00:29:55] Ayan Elmi: Ayan Elmi, parent of children enrolled in Federal Way Public Schools. Students with disabilities face significant harm, not just from insufficient funding, but also from the painful reality that due to their disabilities, they are denied access to fundamental education. We must reflect on the damaging implication of teaching these children that they are less valuable, or burdens. This is why we need to eliminate the cap, increase the multiplier, fund inclusion, and fix the safety net. My children are a source of joy, not a burden. And passing HB 1310 is vital for all the reasons discussed today.

Conclusion

[00:30:33] Christie Robertson: Thanks so much to everybody who went down to Olympia or called in to testify on these important bills. 

Let's talk about deadlines. You said that none of these special education bills in the House have been scheduled for executive action. When do they have to be scheduled by?

[00:30:53] Megan Larkin: So for policy committees – that's things like the education committees – bills have to make it out of committee by February 21st. Aspects of the bills might still be rolled into other bills as the process moves forward, but that bill itself is dead for the session if it doesn't get out of the policy committee by February 21st. 

The deadline to get out of a fiscal committee is one week later – February 28th. 

Then we move on to floor action, which is a whole other beast that I'm sure we will talk about in depth once our Big 3 bills hit the floor.

[00:31:34] Christie Robertson: Yeah, so we've got a couple more weeks of trying to get bills out of their policy committees. And some of them hopefully out of their fiscal committees, too, because a week is not enough to get all those bills through. 

[00:31:49] Megan Larkin: So just to recap, the three bills in the Senate have moved out of their policy committee and they are headed over to Ways and Means. So we want to get a hearing with Ways and Means scheduled sooner rather than later so that we don't bump up against that fiscal cutoff on the 28th. 

[00:32:44] Christie Robertson:  Over in the House, the special education bills are also in their fiscal committee – Appropriations, but have not yet been scheduled for executive action. So we need those scheduled as well.

[00:32:49] Megan Larkin: Our beloved MSOC bill in the House is going before the Appropriations Committee today. We're recording this on Monday at around 11 am. And so we want that to go well. 

And then our House transportation bill hasn't even been scheduled for a hearing. So we definitely want that to happen.

[00:32:51] Christie Robertson: And in our show notes, we will put links if you would like to advocate for each of these bills moving to their next steps. Some of which are going to be emailing someone in the committee, and some of which are going to be signing in.

[00:33:02] Megan Larkin: This is a great example of why it is helpful to link up with a larger education advocacy group. Because those groups will be monitoring them very closely. And they'll send out some kind of action alert or notice that's like, “All right, this bill is in this committee, sign in pro." Or "If you're in the 43rd, please email Nicole Macri and ask her to schedule the House Big 3 transportation bill in Appropriations." Like, you will get these notifications so you don't have to have a spreadsheet and keep track of all of this yourself.

[00:33:38] Christie Robertson: And probably the easiest one for most people to find and that tracks most of the bills that you would be interested in is the Washington State PTA Bill Tracker.

[00:33:48] Megan Larkin: Yes. I know a lot of people that listen to this podcast are SPS parents. So your school most probably has a PTA so you can look to them for advocacy opportunities.

[00:34:02] Christie Robertson: So stick with us. We will be here every week giving you an update on our legislature. 

Let us know what else you're curious or confused about by emailing. hello@rainydayrecess.org. Thanks so much to Megan Larkin for joining us every week. I'm Christie Robertson.

 Stay curious, stay cozy and join us next time on Rainy Day Recess. 


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