Governor says she’s looking out for kids’ interests
‘I’m not interested. I’m not interested. I am not interested.”
That was what Gov. Chris Gregoire had to say when asked what she thinks of some lawmakers’ proposal to delay not just the graduation requirement that high school students pass the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, but also the reading and writing parts.
“When you see the progress that we have made – I mean amazing progress – 30-some percentage points in reading and 40-some percentage points in writing, we’re not failing. We’re succeeding. Why would we turn the clock back?”
The governor stopped short of saying she’d veto such a bill but repeated her original point: “This idea that we are letting our students down by setting standards – we are letting them down by not setting standards and holding them to standards.”
Tax on pro athletes?
With the owners of the Sonics sniffing around for hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to help build a new stadium, three state senators have come up with a novel way to pay for it: a tax on professional athletes.
Senate Bill 5891, prime-sponsored by Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, would put a 10 percent income tax on pro athletes’ pay “derived from Washington sources in compensation for professional athletic labor or services.”
There’s also this interesting clause, saying the tax would apply only to “a resident or nonresident athlete who has a gross annual income that is 10 times the first-year base salary of a public school teacher in Washington state.”
The money would go into a new “athletic public facilities account,” to be used to support public sports facilities.
Finally, just to make things really clear, the bill ends with: “No taxes other than the income tax collected under this section may be used to fund, finance, operate or maintain a public stadium or sports facility.”
(Reality check: Such a change would likely take a constitutional amendment. No hearing has been scheduled.)
Math books, science project, Taser …
House Bill 1764 would add “electronic weapons” to the list of things banned at public and private schools. (Already on that list: brass knuckles, slingshots, daggers, switchblades, nunchuks, throwing stars and pellet guns. Exceptions are made for police, martial arts training, etc.)
According to House legislative researchers, “there is no regulation of the purchase or possession of stun guns in Washington.” Anyone can legally sell or own them, although – as a bill report notes – zapping someone might get you sued or arrested.
The bill would make it a gross misdemeanor to possess a stun gun or Taser on school grounds or a school bus.
Parenting for the ages
Local Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, and nine other lawmakers are running a long-shot bill that would amend the state’s wrongful-death laws to allow parents of even grown children to sue for pain and suffering over the loss of their child.
Ormsby said the bill was prompted by an outcry from friends and family of a 23-year-old student who went to see a doctor with complications from diabetes. A couple of hours after being turned away and told he was fine, Ormsby said, the young man died. His parents – aghast at the loss of someone who had strong emotional and financial ties to his family – had no recourse to sue the doctor, Ormsby said.
As the laws stands now, he said, so-called noneconomic damages (i.e. pain and suffering) are limited to parents who lose a child younger than 18. Ormsby’s HB 1873 would remove any age restriction. He said he expects heavy resistance from insurers, among others. The bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
“I think it resonates a lot with the family values interests of everyone,” Ormsby said.