Your Basic Fight For Education Parents Unite Against School Reform

A breath-stopping cloud of hair spray wafts down the aisle of the packed charter bus. “Close your eyes, everybody,” warns Cindy Omlin, sculpting her hair to perfection.

“Mom!” scolds her fifth-grade daughter, Kelsey, from a seat behind her.

It’s nearly 9 a.m. Thursday and they’ve dozed off and on since the bus left a north Spokane parking lot some five hours ago.

Now the bus has become the backstage waiting room for a show Omlin and her 40 fellow passengers will perform when they finally reach Olympia. It could well be titled “The Trouble With Public Education.”

The trip is organized by Washington Parents Coalition for Academic Excellence, an ambitious group of Spokane families vehemently opposed to national and state education reform plans. They circulated fliers urging “Bring Grandma and the kids!” At $23 apiece, nearly all the seats are full.

Jeanette Faulkner walks the aisle hawking copies of a Senate bill that would set the state’s reform plan on its heels. “Here’s another 5890 if anyone wants it.”

Another mother addresses the 24 kids, who’ve been watching a movie on small TV monitors. Time for a pop quiz on why they got up in the middle of the night and skipped a day of school.

“Can anyone tell me why we’re here?”

“Outcome-based education,” a girl quickly says, referring to education reform.

“Repealing outcome-based education,” adds an older boy.

This year, conservative parents groups are relishing the spotlight as dozens of education bills dear to them get attention from lawmakers.

With Republicans dominating both the House and Senate, bills that would have been ignored last year are getting enthusiastic hearings.

There’s the bill that says teachers can’t present homosexuality as a normal, alternative lifestyle; the bill outlawing hypnosis in schools; the bill declaring English the state’s official language.

There are bills to empower home school families, ban teacher strikes and turn back federal reform money.

Public education lobbyists say most of the proposals are distracting at best, dangerous at worst - and extremely hard to keep up with.

“I truly cannot keep track of them all,” says Trevor Neilson, spokesman for the Washington Education Association.

The strategy “is to flood legislators with bill after bill after bill in hopes that people who’d oppose them would get lost in a sea of legislation,” Neilson says.

Critics say the bills encourage the state to meddle in local issues - that hypnosis, for example, would happen so rarely it could be handled case by case.

“I don’t think we need this excessive moral agenda in the schools,” says Sen. Lisa Brown, a Spokane Democrat.

The group sponsoring the Spokane bus trip is tracking some 300 education bills.

Now they’re focusing on one they’re “terribly, terribly, terribly excited about,” says Joanne McCann, the coalition’s vice president. Senate Bill 5890, the focus of Thursday’s hearing, directs the state to turn away federal reform money.

“This is the reason we started this coalition,” says McCann. “We’ve waited a long time for this one to come.”

The bus pulls alongside the Capitol at 9:30 a.m. and adults rush the children toward Senate Hearing Room One. Among them are home-schooled kids, public school students, students from St. Thomas More, and eight journalism students from Northwest Christian School in Colbert.

Joshua Hanahan, 14, from Nine Mile Falls, plans to write an article about his trip in a newsletter for his home-school group.

Until now, his family hasn’t been very involved in politics. His only glimpse of the Capitol was on a cousin’s home video.

But inside, he and most of the Spokane crowd are turned away at the door. The hearing room is full. Nearly 100 people signed the roster in favor of the bill, far outnumbering the 33 who scrawled “Con” by their names.

A white-haired security guard chuckles at the crowd - the biggest he’s seen at an education committee hearing. “It’s all a show,” he says with quiet skepticism, then nods toward the panel of seven senators. “They won’t fall for it.”

Joshua ends up far down the marble hall, slumped on the floor in an overflow room and listening to the hearing on speakers.

He finds even that limited access impressive.

Supporters want the bill to pass because they believe education reform undermines parents and forces kids to change their behaviors to meet new standards.

They want to turn away federal reform money, a move that educators say would cost the state at least $6 million every two years.

Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, a Democrat from Bothell, argues in favor of educators, lawmakers and supportive parents who’ve spent years mapping out the reform plan. “This bill brings all of our hopes and aspirations to a halt.”

“Booooooooo!” the crowd roars.

The drab overflow room comes alive with cheers and applause when McCann, Faulkner and another Spokane woman are called and they nervously read their written statements.

After lunch, the Spokane visitors split up to spread their wishes among Republican lawmakers. Julie Bauer visits Rep. Bob Sump of Republic. Omlin corners Rep. Cathy McMorris of Colville in an elevator.

Faulkner finds Rep. Peggy Johnson of Shelton, who chairs the House Education Committee and is impressed with how coalition members “do their homework.”

The children were given instructions on the bus: “Kids, don’t be afraid to make yourself known. Tell them you’re here with a group from Spokane, to hear House Bill 5890.”

Lawmakers are already quite familiar with the parents coalition. They’re often inundated with telephone calls, letters and visits.

The women - few men are actively involved - work hard at being heard. Members of a legislative committee track bills and testify at hearings when they can get to Olympia. Once, they had a line dance in an elementary school to raise money.

They’ve grown over the past four or five years from a cluster of parents meeting around kitchen tables to an organized coalition sending a newsletter to 1,000 families. They have a Web site and an automated telephone tree.

A week ago, the coalition met at the Fourth Memorial Church in north Spokane and taught political novices how to read bills, or even write them and find sponsors. About 15 people turned out.

“You would write up your bill,” a speaker said. “As an individual you wouldn’t have to have your bill language perfect.”

They debate their odds of passing laws this year with Democrat Gary Locke holding veto power in the governor’s office.

There’s always hope, a woman said. “He knows the value of a good education.”

As they hit the marble hallways in Olympia scattershot style, one of their favorite bills is being gutted.

Rep. Mark Sterk, a Spokane police officer, compromised with teachers union and school administration lobbyists on the hypnosis bill he sponsored - one that coalition members helped draft.

Parent Gloria Clark wanted the bill to outlaw yoga and guided imagery as well as hypnosis. But opponents convinced Sterk the legislation could even keep coaches, for instance, from telling student golfers to visualize a hole-in-one before taking aim.

Sterk didn’t want the proposal “to sound far-right fanatical,” he says. The new version, which lands on his desk Thursday, bans only hypnosis.

“They were very disappointed that I changed the language, but if I hadn’t, I couldn’t have gotten it out of committee,” says Sterk.

But he applauds the group’s energy. “We’d have had to start from scratch if it weren’t for them.”

At 4 p.m., the Spokane travelers meet on the Capitol steps for their last performance of the day.

They aren’t alone. About 400 people have joined them. Some they recognize and many they don’t. They’re from Vancouver, Puyallup, Kent, Longview, Auburn, Tumwater, Bremerton and other Washington towns.

“Word was passed,” says a Kelso grandmother, holding a sign that says, “Not With My Child You Don’t.”

They’re happy to see that one of their favorite lawmakers - Rep. Harold Hochstatter, a Moses Lake Republican - has joined them.

Hochstatter is a religious man who asks anyone dining with him to bow as he prays - even lobbyists.

The new chairman of the Senate Education Committee says his issues didn’t get much attention until now.

He compares being in the minority party to getting dragged by a horse, foot firmly in stirrup. “You’re there, but you can’t do anything.” This year, he’s in the saddle and making the most of the ride.

A beaming Hochstatter takes the wooden podium and congratulates the visitors for attending the rally and filling the Senate hearing room that morning.

Kathy Olfs, a Spokane woman who collected money for the charter bus, clasps her hands under her chin and enjoys a last moment before the ride home.

“I’m in love with him,” she says. “He speaks to my heart.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)

MEMO: Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. Bills to watch Members of the Washington Parents Coalition for Academic Excellence are tracking more than 300 bills this legislative session. Here are some of the ones they support: Senate Bill 5167: Prohibits public schools from presenting homosexuality as positive, normal behavior. SB5588: Authorizes business and occupation tax credits for private school tuition. SB5555: Allows parents to inspect all public school materials. Requires districts to notify parents before offering courses dealing with such topics as sexuality, suicide and death. Forbids counseling about personal problems without parental consent. SB5182: Requires members of the state Board of Education to be elected rather than appointed. SB5890: Calls for the state to refuse federal money associated with Goals 2000, the nationwide school reform plan. It also prohibits the state from participating in any Goals 2000 programs. House Bill 1598: Prohibits educators from using hypnosis in schools. HB1481: Forbids school boards from censoring documents, records and speeches relating to the founding of the United States or Washington state because of religious references. HB1085: Requires notification of parents before schools conduct tests, questionnaires, surveys, analyses or evaluations involving personal information about students or their families. HB1086: Prohibits public school employees from removing a child from school without parental permission. HB1497: Prohibits public schoolteachers from striking and requires them to make public the issues in dispute before beginning collective bargaining. HB1230: Forbids educators from asking students questions that force them to reveal, analyze or critique their religious beliefs. Also guarantees students the right to freely express religious beliefs where relevant in work, evaluation, tests and schoolsponsored activities without retribution or negative consequences. The coalition also supports Senate Joint Resolution 8201, which amends the state constitution to declare English the official language of Washington state.

2. Hotlines To reach state lawmakers regarding education bills, call the toll-free legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000. Or dial them directly: Senate Education Committee: Chair Sen. Harold Hochstatter Office: 115-B Institutions Building P.O. Box 40482 Olympia, WA 98504-0482 360-786-7624 Ranking Minority Member Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe Office: 402-A John A. Cherberg Building P.O. Box 40482 Olympia, WA 98504-0482 360-786-7600

House Education Committee: Chair Rep. Peggy Johnson Office: 334 John L. O’Brien Building Olympia, WA 98504-0600 (360) 786-7966

Ranking Minority Member Rep. Grace Cole Office: 307 John L. O’Brien Building Olympia, WA 98504-0600 360-786-7910