After a weekend back home, lawmakers returned to action today, hearing a proposal in the House that would allow charter schools, and considering whether to allow colleges a free hand in raising tuitions on all students except resident undergrads.

The pace has slowed considerably from last week's beat-the-deadline bill frenzy, however. So here's a look at some Washington state stats:
-216,000: Number of state community college and university students here
-900,000: people getting state-paid medical assistance
-16,000: people in prison
-65,000: ex-cons on community supervision
-19 percent: the slice of the state budget spent on state-employee salaries and benefits
-56 percent: the amount of the state budget spent on public schools, including state colleges
-34 percent: of state workers live in King County
-7 percent: of state workers live in Spokane County.

Source: state Office of Financial Management.

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