House Panel Pulls Plug On High-Tech Lawmakers Want Interactive Teaching Idea Studied First

A House panel Saturday killed a proposal to pump $40 million into equipping state colleges and universities with the technology to offer “interactive teaching” via computers and television.

The Appropriations Committee unanimously approved measures intended to clamp down hard on sex offenders, including one to send some offenders to prison for life after two convictions.

The panel, plowing through a slew of measures to beat a Tuesday deadline for fiscal-committee action, also passed legislation to boost tuition for out-of-state students at the University of Washington and Washington State University.

The Republican-led committee junked a pet Senate idea this year in deciding to study rather than finance a broad plan to beef up higher education technology. Backers contend technology is the cheapest and most realistic way to open classrooms to citizens who want a higher education.

But Committee Chairman Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor, said the proposal needs far more study. The Democrat-led Senate is expected to fight hard for the legislation, and has promised to resist favored House legislation, including more tax cuts, if the House fails to go along.

The committee, with little discussion, approved a measure that would require that people who sexually prey on adults be imprisoned for life. The “two-strikes” measure would not apply to offenders who prey on children.

Another measure approved by the panel would greatly increase sentences for sexual offenders who victimize children. That bill also would increase sentences for first-time sex-offenders generally.

The two-strikes proposal differs from a Senate measure in that the Senate bill provides that offenders against minors also would get life after two offenses.