The WSCC has combined the final 2016 Legislative Report to include both K -12 education as well as Early Learning. We are most grateful for the guidance of Sister Sharon Park and for Donna Christensen for all her efforts and successful lobbying this session. Thank you!
BUDGET
A balanced, bipartisan, and just agreement will require shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues... We again offer moral criteria to help guide these difficult budgetary decisions: 1) Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity. 2) A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects “the least of these” (Mt 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first. 3) Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.
– USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, 2013
SCHOOLS:
· Department of Health - $511,000 for a medical record validation tool for schools to check on student immunizations
· Department of Commerce - $1 million is provided for grants to school districts to increase identification of homeless students and building capacity to provide supports (HB 1682)
· Superintendent of Public Instruction - $1 million is appropriated for a grant program for schools to identify and support homeless students
· Superintendent of Public Instruction - $276,000 for school safety training and regional programs (SB 6620)
· Superintendent of Public Instruction - $500,000 million for the initiative to increase the number of educators through recruitment and retention programs (SB 6455)
· Superintendent of Public Instruction - $1.75 million for the professional development of paraeducators
· Student Achievement Council (Higher Education Board) - $1.1 million for implementation of the program to increase the number of educators (SB 6455)
· Department of Early Learning - $3.8 million is provided to family child care providers for the newly negotiated collective bargaining agreement that provides subsidy increases, support for slot-based payments, and an increase in tiered reimbursements. Child care centers serving families with subsidies were not provided the same increases
The pdf report is attached below for your reference.
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