Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SEATTLE (AP) — Gov. Jay Inslee signed two education bills in Seattle on Wednesday, both aimed at helping disadvantaged kids get a better education.
He signed a measure that will help improve education for foster youth just after noon at a luncheon at the Seattle Sheraton. Then he visited Aki Kurose Middle School to sign a bill aimed at closing the educational opportunity gap.
Principal Mia Williams, who recently was named Washington middle school principal of the year, said after the bill signing ceremony the measure bill requires schools to do things the staff at Aki Kurose are already doing: keeping track of disaggregated student data, making sure every teacher has cultural competency training and minimizing student suspensions.
She expressed hope that House Bill 1451 will have teeth to make sure schools across the state are really making these changes.
"It shouldn't take a lottery to get in a school that's doing great things," said Williams, who was honored because her school that is more than 90 percent non-white has made progress in closing the achievement gap.
The measure calls for an end to long-term and open-ended suspensions and expulsions. It also improves bilingual instruction and asks for more cultural competency training for educators.
Washington state has one of the largest achievement or opportunity gaps in the nation.
Ending long-term suspensions and expulsions is expected to help because minority students are disproportionately punished in this way. Educators and advocates like to say that students can't learn if they aren't in the classroom.
Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, a Democrat from Seattle, has been pushing this legislation for years as chairwoman of the House Education Committee.
In comments before the bill signing, she called on the state to export the success of Williams' school across the state, noting minority students are nearing 50 percent of the state's student population of just over 1 million students.
She mentioned the McCleary school funding lawsuit and the Legislature's efforts to finish the work set out by the Supreme Court to make education funding more equitable.
"Our students have an affirmative constitutional right to a quality education," Santos said. "Education is a basic civil right."
The governor said it was about time this bill became law and spoke about the historical context of the opportunity gap, from slavery to poverty.
"It really is a profound shadow that still exists over our state and over the United States," Inslee said.
The foster kids bill, House Bill 1999, tells education and child welfare agencies to work together to help foster kids get a better education. It moves administration of education programs to help foster kids work toward college into the education department.
The governor is scheduled to take action on a bill aimed at helping homeless students on Friday at an elementary school in Tacoma. House Bill 1682 would pay for more educational, housing, health care and counseling support for homeless students.
It would also provide for more data collection and reporting on homeless children by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Inslee has not scheduled action on the bill designed to save Washington's charter schools, but has until Saturday to sign or veto that measure and others on his desk.
He said after Wednesday's bill signing that he would share his plans for the charter school measure on Friday.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
