Big 3 Briefing, Week 5 - A Marathon, Not a Sprint

Rainy Day Recess, Episode 15

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 our district out in the world. This series is all about tracking whether our legislature will answer our call to fully fund our schools, which is their constitutional duty in Washington State. 

Megan Larkin is our tour guide for this journey into the legislative process. Megan, can you introduce yourself and remind our listeners what the Big 3 are and what we're doing here?

[00:00:28] Megan Larkin: Sure. Hi, I'm Megan Larkin. I have a Master's in Education Leadership and Policy Studies and used to work in that field. I have two kids in SPS and I am the Regional Advocacy Co Chair for Washington State PTA focusing on Seattle. But I don't speak for any of those organizations, I'm just here as a Big 3 fan. 

 When we talk about the Big 3, we are talking about fully funding transportation, special education, and Materials, Supplies, and Operating Costs, aka MSOC.

[00:01:08] Christie Robertson: And we've been following a set of bills in the House and the Senate.

If you want more background, you can listen to our four previous episodes, especially the first one, 101, where we gave an outline of the process in the legislature, how a bill becomes a law.

Our theme for this week, we decided, is “it's a marathon, not a sprint.”

[00:01:29] Megan Larkin: Yes, because I know that I'm already low-key exhausted. And this is around about the time of this session where I need to remind myself of that. Because we are just midway through the House of Origin for most of these pieces of legislation. We've got a lot of the session ahead and we just need to focus on pacing ourselves and being really consistent with our message of what we want, which is fully funding MSOC, transportation, and special education, and reminding legislators that regardless of if it's a tight budget year or if there's new revenue or not, it's Washington State's paramount duty to amply fund basic education. And they are currently not doing that, in no uncertain terms.

[00:02:27] Christie Robertson: Absolutely. 

The other image that I got in my head as we were talking about how you need to handle these bills is almost like curling. Have you seen curling? 

[00:02:35] Megan Larkin: I haven’t!

[00:02:37] Christie Robertson: Where they have to, like, shepherd this stone into the goal.I haven't seen it much either, but like...

 I had somebody ask me the other day if the bill that my kid had testified on had passed. And it made me laugh, because you have to like testify on bills over and over. You're just continually guiding them all the way through 1) the policy committee, 2) the fiscal committee, and 3) the floor in the House of Origin. Then they switch, and it's 1) the policy committee, 2) the fiscal committee, and 3) the floor. And we're just right in the beginning stages of that, trying to keep that stone going along the ice.

[00:03:15] Megan Larkin: Yes, I love that analogy. That is perfect. You're, like, frantically sweeping the ice, and it seems like it's moving at a glacial pace, but you're like, “oh my god.” Yeah. 

[00:03:26] Christie Robertson: Right. But it could so easily just stop.

[00:03:28] Megan Larkin: Yes, exactly. So it's a curling marathon that we are involved in.

[00:03:34] Christie Robertson: Yeah.

[00:03:35] Megan Larkin: It's important, though, because... I don't want to put in, like, too many metaphors, but I think the old saying that “if you're not at the table, you're on the menu” is very true for the legislative process. And also our extended curling metaphor, because the second you back off, then one of the other 1600 pieces of legislation, then those get through. There's such a high volume of stuff that you really have to stay on top of it, or it might not move.

[00:04:10] Christie Robertson: Yup. It's like curling with 1600 stones on the ice. 

One other thing at the top of the show we were recently reminded of is that – What our legislators would like: they want you to be pleased with them, and yet there's a huge budget deficit at the state level. So the favorite thing from the point of view of our legislators would be if they don't fund education, or they barely fund it, but yet they get credit for funding it. So that is the state of mind that they're in as they're looking at the bills around. This is not the time to back down and accept something less, because, continually through this process, legislators are going to want to get credit for doing less. And we need to say, “no, that's not enough. That is not going to solve our problems.”

[00:05:02] Megan Larkin: Yes, I love that. Be really clear with your demands, and this isn't the time to accept any compromises. This is the time to testify, and sign in Pro, and keep the pressure on that we really need to pass the Big 3 for all of Washington's 295 districts.

[00:05:20] Christie Robertson: Okay.

Deadlines

[00:05:20] Megan Larkin: So I think we've been talking about approaching deadlines. The bill has to be out of its policy committee by the 21st of February and out of its fiscal committee by the 28th. 

Another deadline that I was recently reminded of is March 15th, which is when districts are starting to make staffing decisions. So it's helpful for them to know how much money they're going to get from the state, because then they can figure out how much staff they could hire or how much stuff they might have to let go. The messaging around that March 15 deadline – it's more helpful if that comes from superintendents or districts themselves. And we haven't seen that mentioned too much in testimony. I actually don't recall it being mentioned at all. 

So if you are in SPS, it might be worth considering using the let's talk feature on SPS's website, and tell them to tell the legislature that they have this March 15th deadline, and they need to have this information so they can put together the budgets for 25-26.

[00:06:32] Christie Robertson: Yeah, I believe what it is is that March 15th is the date that the district needs to tell each of the schools whether they need to lay off staff. So if there is not a sure sign that a significant amount of funding is coming from the legislature by then, schools will need to start figuring out staff layoffs. 

[00:06:53] Megan Larkin: Yes.

[00:06:54] Christie Robertson: So tell your superintendents, if you're in Seattle, or if you're outside of Seattle. The superintendents are the ones who are going to be the most powerful to give that message to their legislators. So we in the public education world don't have the luxury of coming up against those legislative deadlines on all of this. We need to get the bills through faster so that our districts know how many or whether they're going to need to cut staff.

Senate Big 3

[00:07:21] Megan Larkin: Yes, and good news on that front is that the Big 3 bills in the Senate are scheduled for a hearing before Ways and Means 

[00:07:31] Christie Robertson: (That's a fiscal committee.)

[00:07:32] Megan Larkin: Yes, it's a fiscal committee... This coming Tuesday, February the 11th at 4 p. m. If they pass through this, then they'll get to the floor, move on to the next house, and maybe we'll have a clearer financial picture for that March 15th deadline.

[00:07:49] Christie Robertson: Since it's a hearing, you'll have a chance to sign in Pro on these bills. The three big bills are SB 5263 by Pedersen and Braun. It's the best special education funding bill in the Senate right now. We would like them to increase the multiplier; they already have ratcheted it down from how it started. 

[00:08:09] Megan Larkin: Yes. And then we have the Senate MSOC bill, SB 5192, that is sponsored by education committee vice chair, T'wina Nobles. The headline there is that it's about a 10% increase in funding from where we're at right now, and we would like to see more. There's a bill in the House for MSOC that is about a 20% increase in funding. 

We'd like to see an annual inflationary factor added. We would like a rebase every four years so we're not in this boat again, of having MSOC so cripplingly underfunded that there are districts east of the mountains that can't have school because they can't afford to heat the school. Things are bad out there. So we really do need to have a significant increase in MSOC funding.

[00:09:04] Christie Robertson: Yeah, we just heard about a school that had to close for four days in the winter because they couldn't heat the building, and a school that had to turn off their hot water because it was too expensive, and so the water wasn't even warm enough to heat up the soap to wash their hands.

[00:09:23] Megan Larkin: Yeah.

[00:09:24] Christie Robertson: It's bad. We have it bad in Seattlem and some other districts have it even worse. We really need this MSOC funding. 

[00:09:30] Megan Larkin: It's true. And something that's great about the Big 3 is it impacts literally all of Washington's 295 districts. And I believe in the show notes, Christie, you're gonna leave that AESD data tool. 

[00:09:34] Christie Robertson: Yes.

[00:09:35] Megan Larkin: And that really does a good job of showing just how bad it is. 

The last of the Big 3 bills in the Senate is SB 5187. That's the transportation bill introduced by Senator Wellman, who's the chair of the Early Learning K-12 Committee. We would like to see money for foster students and students with disabilities, those special passengers. And ideally, we would like to see it go into effect before 2028, but I'm unsure where... I understand there's some conversations being had. 

So the transportation and MSOC bills are not ideal, but they're a starting point for this conversation. They give us some place to advocate around. So it's really important that we sign in Pro for these bills before 3 PM on Tuesday, February the 11th. 

I think we're going to see significant opposition to these bills, again, from, probably from the Conservative Ladies of Washington. And they tend to rally their troops to sign in a little bit later. So all of those Pros lull you into a false sense of security, and then you wake up the next morning and bam, a bunch of people are signing in Con.

[00:11:11] Christie Robertson: In order to sign in Pro, if you want to just go to leg.wa.gov right now, there's a spot on that first page to enter a bill number and you can enter “5263” – that's the special education bill. And then there's a button on that bill's landing page that says “sign up to testify”. That's actually the link to either testify or sign in. And it will walk you through what you need to do. 

Actually, once you get to the first one, you'll be able to see them all. They're all in the same hearing, right? You'll get to a page that shows all of them and you can just bump back a couple of pages to sign in on the other two as well. We also of course have links in our show notes 

[00:11:51] Megan Larkin: It's going to be really important to sign in Pro. Because of the opposition, but also because we often hear from legislators that they don't hear from parents, they just don't hear from people at all around K-12. But there are over a million students in school in Washington, so there's a ton of people out there that are interested in K-12. And doing things like signing in Pro, that's an opportunity for us to really show our numbers. 

Because this legislative update series is geared towards people who might be newer to the legislative process, we've been really emphasizing signing in Pro because it is a great way to show our numbers, and you can really literally do it in under a minute. But it's important that people know that you can also give verbal or written testimony if you feel so moved. You can do that also through that same committee sign in place. 

But especially if you're new, I think it would behoove you to find your advocacy org of choice and approach them and say, "I really want to testify. Here's how this is impacting my family. What can I do?" And it's very likely that they will help you with testimony. And then your testimony will be used in a very strategic way at the right time, at the right hearing, with the right message. It also helps you as the new person to testifying, because they'll hold your hand through the process. You can feel really confident in what you're saying, and you'll have all the support you need. I know Washington State PTA is often looking for folks to testify. And your local PTA or other advocacy org might be looking as well.

[00:13:42] Christie Robertson: Yes, if there's an advocacy person at your school's PTA, or Seattle Council PTA also coaches people up to testify. It's really formulaic. So you'll just have a chunk in the middle where you can tell if you have a story of how you're impacted by recent budget cuts, or how your school was almost closed, or how your kid can't access the library. Any story that you're willing to share is very impactful, whether it's written or especially if it's spoken. 

And also, I'll say, it's very empowering. It's scary for many people the first time you do it, but it feels really good to either call in or go down there and have your legislators, for two minutes, pay attention to your story. So I definitely encourage people to take the leap.

[00:14:36] Megan Larkin: Yes, I second that encouragement. It's important and powerful. And if people want to share their personal impact stories around the state's chronic underfunding of education, they could also reach out to you, Christie, right?

[00:14:52] Christie Robertson: Yeah! If you would like to record a voice memo on your phone, you can email it to us at hello@rainydayrecess.org, and let us know how you'd like to be identified. We would love to include that in our next episode.

[00:15:08] Megan Larkin: Yes, that's so cool.

[00:15:10] Christie Robertson: I don't know how many legislators we have listening to this, but I imagine there's at least a couple.

[00:15:15] Megan Larkin: Yeah, I've heard they're aware of it. So sharing a personal story with Rainy Day Recess, I think is another way to get it out into the ether to really just keep up that pressure and that sense of urgency. 

Because, especially in this marathon stage, in our curling metaphor the frantically sweeping stage, it can be, I think, easy to see this as a matter of dollars or data points or highly technical causes that you need to put in a bill or not. And then the people are erased from the process amidst the deluge of technical information. So I think sharing a personal story here, sharing a personal story about how this has impacted you, just, like, when you're out talking to people, humanizing these issues in this way is really important.

And I've had this conversation with people before when I'm out in the wild, stuff like "I don't have a personal story around MSOC". You probably don't have a personal story about how your school's utilities have impacted your family, but you might have a personal story about how the thing that the levy enrichment dollars could have been used for now is not there. Because those dollars had to be used to backfill MSOC so that your school could pay for its utilities. The ripple effects of underfunding these three big ticket items are felt by almost everybody.

[00:16:51] Christie Robertson: Yeah. One of the things that I think we forget about is class sizes. Our class sizes have consistently been getting bigger over the last few years. 

And, ironically, I think a big part of it is how underfunded we are for special education. And so the money for special education is coming from classes, from classroom teachers. And then that makes it even harder for teachers to help kids getting special education services in their classrooms. If you have a 30 to 40 kid classroom, you're very liable to be thinking, “I just need to get these kids to behave so that I can try to teach something,” rather than, "how can I make sure that I'm meeting the individual needs of all my students?" 

I'm sure many people out there have a story about class sizes, and I think that's really important to share as well. 

And this is a perfect time to mention that hearing from parents is great, but hearing from teachers is also really important. And students, most of all. Legislators love students. So if you, as a student, have something to say, they definitely want to hear from you, and your voice will have a huge impact. Two great student-led advocacy groups that can help you with your testimony are the Seattle Student Union and the NAACP Youth Council.

Or again, send us a voice memo and we would love to amplify your message.

[00:18:19] Megan Larkin: Yes. There's a lot of opportunities to make your voice heard.

[00:18:24] Christie Robertson: Awesome. 

House Big 3

Should we talk about the House?

[00:18:26] Megan Larkin: Yes. Okay. So I believe last week it was on February 3rd that the House Appropriations Committee had a hearing for HB 1338, which is the House MSOC bill. I won't get too into the weeds about the specifics that are in that bill, but the headline is it would increase MSOC by 20%, and we really love this bill. 

3,700 people signed in, with just under 2,500 people indicating a Pro position. So if that was you, thank you so much! Please rally the troops so we can just keep doing that throughout the session. 

[00:19:08] Christie Robertson: The House Big 3 bills – it's a bit unexpected to us – they did not go through a policy committee. They all went straight to a fiscal committee. So some of them have had a hearing in Appropriations, the House fiscal committee, but none of them have yet been scheduled for executive session. So we are in that tricky stage where if you want to advocate for those House bills right now, you need to contact legislators who are on the Appropriations Committee

[00:19:37] Megan Larkin: Yes. And ask them to... 

[00:19:39] Christie Robertson: ...to schedule an executive session.

[00:19:41] Megan Larkin: Yeah. Last week there was also a hearing for the House special education bills. And none of those have been scheduled for executive action yet. 

[00:19:51] Christie Robertson: The one you want to advocate for is Rep. Pollet's bill, HB 1310. There are some bits and pieces in other bills. And this comes into what I was saying before about legislators wanting to get credit without doing the hard stuff. Many of the other bills are either watered down versions, or they only tackle one piece of what's required for special education funding. And they're called, like "Fully Funding Special Education", or things like that. Don't fall for it. HB 1310 is the one we want in the House.

[00:20:22] Megan Larkin: Yes. Yeah. HB 1310 in the House and SB 5263 in the Senate. And we're just advocating for those bills to include all of the things we'd like, but we want to always be signing in Pro when there's an opportunity, and then giving testimony about what we would like to see also included in the bills. 

The final Big 3 bill in the House is HB 1579, which has yet to even be scheduled for a hearing. It's the companion bill to the Senate transportation bill, so I won't go over what's in it again. But if you live in the 43rd, Nicole Macri is one of your reps, and she's also the vice-chair of Appropriations. So reach out to her and ask her to schedule HB 1579, the transportation Big 3 bill in the House, for a hearing.

[00:21:20] Christie Robertson: And you can also ask her to schedule HB 1310 for an executive session – the special education bill.

[00:21:28] Megan Larkin: Yes. 

[00:21:29] Christie Robertson: Who else was it? Tim Ormsby and Mia Gregerson. Ormsby is in Spokane right? So if you're listening from Spokane, let Tim Ormsby know to schedule HB 1310  for exec session.

Tim Ormsby is the chair of Appropriations, and there's two vice-chairs – Nicole Macri and Mia Gregerson. Gregerson is in charge of the education portion of the budget, so she's a really key person to reach.

You can find your legislators by googling “Find my district”, and then you can put in your address, and it will tell you who your legislators are.

[00:22:10] Megan Larkin: Okay. Mia Gregerson is from the 33rd.

[00:22:15] Christie Robertson: Okay, and that is Burien, Kent (Ooh, I know someone in Kent), SeaTac, Des Moines, parts of Tukwila, Renton, and Normandy Park.

[00:22:24] Megan Larkin: All right. If that's you, reach out to Mia Gregerson.

We also have some local legislators that are on Appropriations. Even if they're not in a chair role, they might have some influence. 

• They're Bergquist in the 11th
• Ryu in the 32nd
• Fitzgibbon in the 34th
• Street in the 37th
• Pollet in the 46th

[00:22:48] Christie Robertson: We will link to maps and contact information and all that stuff in our show notes. If you would like to help clear the way for the bills that are valiantly making their way toward the goal.

[00:23:04] Megan Larkin: Yes, and don't forget to tell all your friends to sign in Pro for the Senate Big 3 bills that are having their hearing in ways and means this Tuesday, February the 11th, at 4 pm. Please sign in Pro by 3 pm. Your voice really matters on these. 

And if you have friends who are like "yeah, I'd like to sign in Pro, but I need to read the bill first.” Or, “I'm going to get to it next week." Very sorry, but we do not have until next week. I would definitely recommend finding an advocacy org that resonates with you and looking at their summary and putting that out to people. But please encourage your networks to sign in Pro. These are big deal bills and we're expecting significant opposition.

[00:23:52] Christie Robertson: If you do like to read before you sign, the nonpartisan aides prepare a very digestible report for bills that have a hearing. And so you're welcome to go to that bill's page on leg.wa.gov and read that. but I'll warn you that it might get you hooked on tracking legislative stuff because it becomes very interesting.

[00:24:14] Megan Larkin: That's good. We want more people hooked.

[00:24:16] Christie Robertson: Okay, is that everything?

[00:24:18] Megan Larkin: I think so. Hopefully we have energized a lot of metaphorical curling fans.

[00:24:23] Christie Robertson: Email us at hello@rainydayrecess.org, let us know your metaphors, and share your voice memos on how you are or may be impacted by what our legislature is doing. 

That's Week 5 of the Washington Legislature Big 3 Briefing, and we will be back to cover the next leg of this journey as the deadline for these first set of hurdles comes closer. You can find our show notes at rainydayrecess.org. Thank you, Megan, for being here again.

[00:24:57] Megan Larkin: Thank you for having me.

[00:24:58] Christie Robertson: I'm Christie Robertson. Stay curious, stay cozy, and join us next time on Rainy Day Recess.