(The Center Square) – A controversial bill that describes itself as “promoting a safe and supportive public education system” was the subject of more than six hours of debate by lawmakers on Wednesday night into Thursday morning before finally being approved by the Washington State House of Representatives.
Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1296 aims to promote a safe and supportive public education system by addressing student rights, parental/guardian rights, employee protections, and requirements for state and local education entities.
Critics contend the legislation is designed to undermine Initiative 2081, known as the parents’ bill of rights, that passed the Legislature last year.
The bill was passed after 2 a.m. Thursday morning on a party-line 56-37 vote. All Democrats voted for the bill, and all Republicans voted against it. Five members were excused from voting.
Opponents of the bill won a victory of sorts in the form of a striking amendment – a complete rewrite of the bill – put forth by bill sponsor Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver – that was adopted. It was one of a few that passed out of 131 amendments proposed. The rewritten bill mandates that schools notify parents immediately if something serious happens to their child. The previous version of the bill called for a 48-hour window.
Another amendment that passed strengthens parents’ rights to access school records by retaining the current 10-day response time for schools to provide parents with requested information. House Bill 1296 would have extended that to 45 days.
“I think 10 days is a reasonable amount of time to be able to get your child’s records from the school. 45 days, essentially a month and a half is far too long to wait,” said Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, who proposed the amendment.
There were some contention moments during debate on the bill.
Two and a half hours in, Rep. Ed. Orcutt, R-Kalama, vigorously defended local school boards’ ability to make their own decisions.
“Our locally elected school boards are not getting a chance to make decisions for their community and their schools,” he said. “They are being forced by law to provide certain kinds of materials. Even when school boards are opposed to those materials. Those school boards cannot make the decision on their own because they are right now under threat from the Superintendent of Public Instruction of having some of their funding canceled.
At that point, Orcutt made comments that did not go over well with the House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma.
“Imagine the frustration of the parents who have a child come home with a comic book, and on page 282 of that comic book there is a graphic of a woman who is naked and they are showing her from about the ribs down, lying down with her legs in the air and another person’s face between her legs,” Orcutt said.
He was then gaveled down by Jinkins and told to “refrain from graphic remarks.”
Jinkins was asked about ESHB 1296 during a Thursday media availability event.
“We decide what bills we’re going to bring to the floor, and the Republicans decided what time they are going to move off of the floor,” she said in reference to the staggering number of amendments brought up during the debate. “I think people should be comforted by the fact that last year when we moved the initiative off the House, we highlighted a number of issues that we thought were going to create conflict and confusion.”
Jinkins noted the Legislature opted to pass I-2081 last year despite that conflict and confusion.
“The underlying bill will fix that,” she said.
At a Thursday media event held by Republican leadership, Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, was asked about the exhausting floor session.
“It’s obviously disappointing because parents in our state are continuing to feel pushed away from their children and that the state feels like it can do a better job of caring for children, and that’s not a Republican or Democrat issue,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s defeating because we were here until 2 a.m. fighting for parents and fighting for kids. The frustrating part is they placed an emergency clause in it, which basically prevents a referendum, and that’s … circumventing the rights of citizens.”
Let’s Go Washington, the conservative activist group behind I-2081, has filed another initiative with the Secretary of State’s Office to protect parents’ rights.
Meanwhile, the Senate has passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5181, which is meant to align I-2081 with existing state law.
