Author: Ross

I am the Director of the Department of Early Learning for Washington State. I formerly represented the 48th Legislative District in the State House of Representatives, chairing the Appropriations committee and spent many a year at Microsoft.

How Much is Enough?

A constituent asked me the following questions in email this week and I think the answers are worth pointing out.

1) Can you show me the studies that indicate there is a correlation between money spent per student and student achievement? It would be good to know that spending more money would get better results.
2) How much money is enough? The common cry is that the state doesn’t spend enough money, but I wonder how we define “enough”. Is there some percentage of the budget or dollar amount that would be satisfactory and get different results from what we get now? (refer back to above question)

 

I pointed her to the results of a study we did in 2008 – the Basic Education Financing Joint Task Force. We used the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to examine the research in education, try to weed out the questionable work, and quantify what we proposed and how it would affect student learning. I warn people that reading too much into the details here can lead to absurd results, but I think they did a good job.

The results for our proposal, which is about a 40% increase in spending are below. More detail on their methodology is available in the actual report, available here. See appendix B.

Results

At the December 8, 2008, meeting of the Task Force, we presented preliminary long

run effects of the Task Force portfolio on high school graduation rates in Washington.21

We update these estimates here. According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the current high school graduation rate in Washington is about 72.5 percent. This is a cohort on time graduation rate.22 We used the procedures described earlier to project two estimates: how both the Task Force proposal and the zero based option could be expected to affect this rate. These effects are estimated 14 years after full implementation of the options to reflect the estimated long-run effect of investments in pre‐school and the other grades at the end of the education cycle in 12th grade.
Task Force Recommendation
We project that the Task Force recommendations would increase the modal graduation rate to about 81 percent from its current level of 72.5 percent. Exhibit B‐1 plots these two figures and also indicates the significant amount of uncertainty around our estimated effect of the Task Force portfolio. The total area under the curve represents all cases from our simulation modeling. For example, in a small number of cases, the graduation rate could be expected to be much higher—over 90 percent; in most cases, however, it would be in the 78 percent to 84 percent range, with the modal case of 81 percent. The range largely reflects the underlying uncertainty in the expected effect of additional educational resources on student outcomes.

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

Taxing Gold Bullion?

One of the first things new legislators say to me when they review the “Tax Exemptions 2008” report from the department of revenue is that we should eliminate the tax exemptions for gold bullion and bull semen sales. They stick out as crazy exemptions. NPR even did a story on the bullion loophole.

Governor Gregoire talked about it on the campaign trail in 2004. Last week when she proposed closing some tax loopholes she included removing the bullion exemption in her proposed legislation. She removed both a B&O exemption and a sales tax exemption bullion dealers have had for a long time. I sponsored her legislation (a routine courtesy offered by committee chairs to Governors) and had a hearing on it early this week.

The coin and bullion industry made a compelling case that removing the sales tax exemption would result in a significant loss of sales. The fiscal note from the Department of Revenue confirms this, estimating a loss of 70% of the business. This is why there is a sales tax exemption.

Continue reading “Taxing Gold Bullion?”

School Funding post-McCleary

A broken piggy bank filled with money.I have not yet completely read the long opinion Judge Erlick issued yesterday in a court case brought by school districts, parents, and educator groups but I’m excited by the summary and the implications for a positive impact on school funding in Washington. The judge ruled that the state does not adequately fund public education and that we are not meeting the constitutional requirement that we “amply provide for the education of all students.”

Like most judicial opinions that require the state to do something, rather than an opinion ruling some action of the state unconstitutional, there is a lot of deference given to the legislature in how to carry out the ruling. For example, when the US Supreme Court ruled in the Brown vs. Board of Education case the ruling phrase was that we should use “all deliberate speed” in eliminating segregation in schools. This was pretty ambiguous, but served as the basis for many actions, including federal protection of children attending previously forbidden schools and much court supervision over desegregation plans.

Judge Erlick ruled that the plan we passed last year (HB 2261, the result of our Basic Education Financing Task Force) was an acceptable framework for clearly stating what basic education entails and determining the cost. I’m pleased that the plan we produced meets the court’s approval, but now we will have to both close down the details of it AND determine a funding plan.

Continue reading “School Funding post-McCleary”

Court rules against state on school funding!

Today Judge John Erlick of King County Superior Court ruled that the state not met its constitutional requirements for “ample” funding of schools. I’m still working my way through the ruling, but released the following statement earlier today.

Statement from Rep. Ross Hunter on King County Superior Court’s school funding ruling

“Today’s court ruling doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know – the Legislature is not giving schools the money they need to provide the quality of education we want. This issue is why I ran for the Legislature in 2002 and it remains my top priority to this day.”

“We took an historic step forward last session when we passed House Bill 2261. We expanded the definition of basic education and committed ourselves to reworking the funding formula to make sure lawmakers pay for it. We made students and student success the basis of our new funding approach. I’ve said all along that when our children graduate from high school they should be prepared for jobs that don’t require paper hats. Clearly the courts agree.”

“I don’t think the state should waste money appealing this decision. It lights a much-needed fire under legislators to put education funding first.”

520 Generates Controversy

As usual, every time we take a step forward on the 520 Bridge project we generate a bunch of controversy. In December the 520 Legislative Workgroup released its recommendation for the “A+” design option. I’ve written extensively abou tthis and you can read my blog of search local news sites for news about the 520 bridge for details.

On Monday morning Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn held a press conference with House Spekaer Frank Chopp, Rep. Jamie Pedersen, and Sen. Ed Murray to propose a set of changes to the design, which they voted against in the workgroup. Their new proposal is to limit the use of the 3rd lane in each direction to transit only, and to investigate using it for light rail only.

I am not a fan of this change for the following reasons:
 
1. We have an HOV network on all major roads in the area, except 520. If we expect people to carpool we need to provide them with a better experience. It’s not better on 520, so people don’t do it. Imagine an hour in a car where you don’t control the music, you don’t like the people (any more) and it doesn’t give you any speed advantage. If it’s faster you ca n tolerate your co-worker’s unfortunate burping problem, but not if it’s the same amount of time as driving your own car.
 
2. If the HOV lane becomes clogged with busses and HOV vehicles, we can easily increase the occupancy requirement – go to 3 people per vehicle. The goal is to keep that lane moving at a reasonable speed and move the maximum number of people.
 
I’d love to have light rail across the bridge. If they want to add fixed rail to the bridge I am open to it, but Sound Transit keeps weighing in that it doesn’t work. However, I don’t think we should throw the existing Sound Transit plan up in the air in order to consider a major new change of direction. The 520 plan is designed to allow expansion for light rail in the future by adding pontoons. The east side alignment will work smoothly with light rail – all the overpasses etc. are wide enough to handle the capacity. Planning the landing on the west side so that we don’t preclude this option is important. To not preclude the addition of high capacity transit was a piece of negotiation we did a few years ago.
 
As a community we have worked on these plans for over a decade, with participation from both sides of the lake, from transit, from elected officials, from neighborhoods, from everyone. If we are to change major regional plans every time a new mayor of one of the 39 cities in the county is elected we are in deep trouble. This bridge plan improves the westbound peak-time transit experience from Redmond to Seattle by 40+ minutes. We have a plan that won 10-3 in the latest community involvement process, a plan that fits into the budget, that can be permitted, and that replaces the bridge on schedule. We should move forward.

Town Hall Meeting Thursday Jan 7th

On Thursday Jan 7th Sen. Tom, Rep. Eddy and I will host yet another of our regular town hall meetings. This one will be held in the Peter Kirk room at Kirkland City Hall, starting at 6:30 in the evening. We have the room for 90 minutes. Rodney, Deb and I will offer opening remarks and will take questions. You may find my email newsletter relevant and useful prep for the meeting. Click 2009-12-15 Newsletter for a printable version.

The Seattle Times covered our press release on the town hall meeting with this (light) piece: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bellevueblog/2010627332_520budgetcutsonagendaateastsidelegislativetownhall.html

Thursday Jan 7th. 6:30 PM

Kirkland City Hall – Peter Kirk Room
123 Fifth Avenue
Kirkland, WA

Click here for a map

EPA Response to Industry Phase-Out of DECA-BDE

I worked hard (successfully) to eliminate the use of this chemical in Washington. The ban spread to other states. The companies have finally thrown in the towel and are switching to a presumably better product. It’s nice to win one every now and then. DECA-BDE is incredibly bad for children and more than a million pounds a year were imported into Washington.

EPA Reaction to DecaBDE Phaseout Announcement

WASHINGTON – As a result of negotiations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, several companies announced today they will undertake a three year phaseout of decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE), a persistent and toxic chemical that has been used as a flame retardant in consumer and other products.

Steve Owens, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, issued the following statement in response to the announcement:

“Though DecaBDE has been used as a flame retardant for years, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has long been concerned about its impact on human health and the environment. Studies have shown that decaBDE persists in the environment, potentially causes cancer and may impact brain function.  DecaBDE also can degrade to more toxic chemicals that are frequently found in the environment and are hazardous to wildlife.

“Today’s announcement by these companies to phase out decaBDE is an appropriate and responsible step to protect human health and the environment.”

For more information, please visit:  http://www.epa.gov/oppt/pbde/

 

Thanks for attending my telephone town hall

We made almost 30,000 calls to people in the 48th district tonight. Over 6000 attended part of the town hall, with about 500 people on the call for most of the time, and 160 die-hards who stayed until the end. I’ve never had more than 200 people at a town hall before, so this reached people whom I would not have reached otherwise.

I still like the live events, and will mostly do those, but I’ll try to do 2 of these a year. They’re expensive, so I won’t do many.

People asked about spending money in smart ways on K-12 and I said I’d re-post my documents from last year. here they are:

Basic-Ed Funding Proposal 10-1

Basic Ed Finance 4 Page Overview

I also mentioned a chart I included in my newsletter about the growth in the state budget over time. I’ve included that here as well.

Growth of state revenues 9and budget) since 1981
Growth of state revenues 9and budget) since 1981

 

I look forward to returning the phone calls from people who left messages, and of, the rest of you as well.

New Newsletter Available

I emailed out a newsletter today. I’m attaching a link to the PDF version of it – this is somewhat easier to print out and read if you’re a print person.

2009-12-15 Newsletter

I expect to produce much more regular newsletters now that we are approaching the session. Please let me know if there is something you would like me to address. I’ll try to address popular questions that we get in email as well as the stuff I’m working on.

Telephone Town Hall

I’m trying a new thing this year – a “telephone” town hall. I sit with a headset and we have an autodialer call as many of you as we can. We give you the opportunity to stay on the call if you want to participate. Others who have done this have had thousands of people stay on the line. I can’t imagine that many people are interested in what I have to say, but it’s worth a shot.

Tuesday December 15th at 6:30 pm.

If you don’t get a call, you can call in yourself toll-free at 877-229-8493. Participants will be prompted to enter an ID code which is 15390. You can call in up to ten minutes early.

I’ll also be “liveblogging” the call, whatever that means. I’ll practice on Monday so it’s not stupid… To participate online: To join the live blog, click through from my legislative website at www.housedemocrats.wa.gov/members/hunter or follow along on Twitter by following @rosshunter or searching #rosshunter.

I don’t usually like these as I think I should stand up in a meeting and take your questions directly. It’s too easy in a format like this to only take convenient questions. However, they reach many more people than are able to physically come to a town hall meeting. I’m experimenting. If you like it, let me know and I’ll do more of them.

We have a real town hall in early January as well.

Thursday Jan 7th, 6:30 PM
Kirkland City Hall – Peter Kirk Room
123 Fifth Avenue
Kirkland, WA