From WWU Government Relations: The Western Legislative Review
The 2014 Legislative Session is scheduled to run from January 13 through March 13. Throughout the session, Western’s state government relations team will be providing periodic updates here so that you can follow what’s going on in Olympia.
Last year, after one regular 105-day legislative session and two special sessions, the legislature adjourned on June 29, passing a budget that made significant reinvestment in Western, and targeted investment in computer science and engineering. This year is scheduled to be a much shorter, 60-day session, and revenue forecasts indicate that there won’t be much new money on the operating or capital side. Western will be going in to the session with a couple of modest decision packages and one capital budget request, which you can read about below:
Our first proposal is aimed at STEM teacher preparation. Washington’s schools are experiencing a critical shortage of highly qualified teachers in the areas of science and math, and STEM teacher preparation is a core strength at Western, where we’ve received more than $20 million in grants aimed at improving K-12 STEM education. The NextGen STEM Teacher Prep proposal will help meet the state’s needs by expanding and improving our science and math education program at Western, recruiting a diverse cadre of motivated STEM students to teach, preparing at least ten science specialists each year to serve in high needs schools, and creating a next generation model that can help improve STEM teacher preparation across the state of Washington.
Our second proposal is a request for state support for our highly successful Compass 2 Campus mentoring program at Western, and will be a joint effort with the Public School Employees who have also identified this as a priority.
