Comments on this legislation Post new comment Text and Analysis Add to Watch List
Previous Next
- Introduced by Rep. Pat Sullivan, (Covington) (D) on February 2, 2009, declares an intent to expand participation in the running start program and secure ample support for the continuation of this program.
- Referred to the House Higher Education Committee on February 2, 2009.
Comments
1) Re: 2009 House Bill 1915 (changing running start provisions) by Reality Check on February 12, 2010The original form of this bill was introduced by 9 Democrats and 1 Republican.
All were from the Seattle area except 1 Democrat from the city of Spokane and 1 Democrat from the city of Vancover.
Representatives Sullivan, Priest, Wallace, Nelson, Conway, Morrell, Ormsby, Kagi, Kenney, and Simpson
The intent and the effect of this bill was to Continue having high schools pay for running start students
And to delete from law the prohibition against colleges charging both High Schools directly and the High School Students individually for the costs of Running Start Students going to college as part of high school.
As written this bill would have made it perfectly legal to double charge for running start students attending college.
A virtually identical bill was introduced into the WA State Senate, SB 5924, in the 2009 session.
A bill that would accomplish much the same objective, SB 6655, was introduced in the Senate in the 2010 session.
This original bill, H-1915, was introduced in both the 2010 session and the previous 2009 sesion of the WA State House.
Notwwithstanding the hype contained in the intro to this bill, "running start" programs have come under much criticism by noted educators. There is a very real question about what is the best division of educational responsibilities between high school and college, community colleges included. However, in this specific case our legislative body examines the current situation in which about 400 students--that's all!--are using running start in Washington. Beyond those students and their parents, the taxpayers are not involved. The cost to the students is somewhere in the range of $1500/year, although the bill is not clear on this and the OFM comes comes up with a much larger figure. My point is that our legislature should be focused on the BIG management items, not some nickel-and-dime stuff that impacts a minute fraction of us.
Introduced in the House on February 2, 2009
Click here to view bill details.
Your new comments should be made in the box below.